This delightful book by Lakshmi Puri uses the unstitched length of woven cloth to tell a personal story of life, learning and living, all wrapped in the layered folds of lore, myth and legend, faith and philosophy, that manifest the histories and stories plucked from the infinite oral tradition of India and her civilisation. There is much to learn from The Sari Eternal. It encapsulates an ocean of complex ideas, interpretations, beliefs and mores that are embedded in the diverse fabric of India using colour, texture and motif as metaphors and markers of time and space, as also of everyday life entwined in changing seasons.My generation grew up with many such stories told to us by family elders, all of which became a part of our being. She has shared memories of her growing up years with her mother and her extended family, all built around the safety and comfort of being able to retreat into the drape of a mother or grandmother’s sari-clad lap. Puri has used her pen, much like the shuttle on a loom, to weave the story of Indian civilisation — past, present and that which is reaching out into an unknown future — with multiple histories that have flowed in as well as some that have ebbed out, tying them together in her narrative.Broken into chapters, the book talks about the multiple contexts within which the sari plays a pivotal role describing facets of a larger cultural realm. From the Devi temple of Kamakhya in Assam to the abhisheks in temples across India where deities — Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati — are dressed in temple saris, applauding the spirit of strength and confidence, of nurturing compassion, defined as Shakti and womanhood. Puri speaks of the women in the socio-political space who have worn the sari with love and joy, using the drape much like a second skin, to make a statement, to raise the bar, to salute the skill of the hands and the craftspeople who have made India the alive and robust hub of creative, legacy industries, defeating the uniformity of globalisation. The different types of woven saris have endorsed many different identities and have been the elements that come together to create a formidable tapestry that is India. She tells of how Indira Gandhi wore saris from all the regions in India and when she visited a particular state, she draped on her person, the textile of that part of the country, raising a ‘hurray’ for the people and their age-old skill that has survived time and change. Vijaya Raje Scindia, Sucheta Kripalani, Sheila Dikshit, J Jayalalithaa, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and all the women of India who made it their business to restore and conserve the inherited, tried and tested, cultural traditions, all icons of their time, wore the sari, and only the sari.Also Read | How Kanjeevaram saris are redefining heritage for young womenIn another section, she tells of how the Mughals brought the stitched garment into play as also new motifs from across borders that merged into the Indian dictionary. Interesting historical transitions find a reference here. Another chapter elaborates how Bollywood has saluted the sari and used it to express a range of emotions from the evocation of sensuality when the heroine is drenched and wet; the sari embracing her slender silhouette accentuating the beautiful shape and form of the female body, akin to the great bronzes of our myriad goddesses, to the entire cycle of emotions, all symbolised by colour, motif and drape of the sari. Every actress on the Indian screen and stage, from then to now, has revered the sari. The Hunterwali way of tying the sari, ready for combat and action, to the virtually lyrical drape in a romantic scene, has stamped the sari, the unstitched cloth, as versatile and therefore, everlasting.The jugalbandi of the sari draping a female body and the turban draping a male head, has a place too, in the storytelling of the unstitched length of fabric that comes off the looms of India day in and day out. Then again, Puri has introduced the impact that the sari has had on international fashion where designers from Europe and America used the various drapes to enhance the line, silhouette, shape and form of dresses and long formal gowns. There was a moment when the turban, tweaked in design, became a fashion statement, a headgear, for stylish women. Elizabeth Taylor, the great Hollywood actress, for one.Also Read | Gen Z reinvents the sari: From traditional drapes to modern boho-chic fashionAnd finally Gen Z. Will the sari drape their lives? Will the sari triumph over the little black dress and the trouser suit? Will professional working women morph into looking like their male counterparts in ‘suits’ sans the tie? Will the ‘feminine’ give way to ‘unisex’? Will different styles become the ‘leaders’ of future design trends? Will the unstitched fabric of India be draped any and every which way over leggings and tee-shirts to keep the looms singing, alive and kicking? Will a new generation, now in their twenties, delve into the bhandaars of Indian textiles and weaving traditions to revive, reinvent, restore and rejuvenate the sari?India and the unstitched length of woven cloth, the sari, become one in this book. Despite a plethora of cultural influences that entered the fabric of India over millennia, the sari has stood the test of time, as has the turban, the dhoti and the angavastra. Unstitched and infinite, defining a freedom of spirit, a manifestation of a fundamental unity in diversity, with colours and motifs being the unspoken, silent, symbolic representations of societal truths. Saris for celebration, saris for mourning, saris draped for different occasions; red saris for marriage, yellow saris to herald in the spring season, black to wear at Diwali, the dark night of Amavasya, the directory of colour and motif is infinite too. As long as this unstitched cloth is draped any which way around the human body, it will live on. Puri has captured the essence of the sari and folded it into the ethos of India. The book is a must read for men and women alike because it is a story of India as seen and experienced through the eye and pen of Puri. A personal tribute.Story continues below this adSingh is an author, historian, advocate of Indian handicrafts and author of Saris of Memory