Dhoti

What it is

The dhoti is a rectangular length of cloth, commonly around four yards, that is not cut or sewn. A man winds it around his waist and legs so that it falls to the ankles and resembles trousers. It is ethnic wear for men in the Indian subcontinent and the counterpart of the sari worn by women. A yellow silk dhoti, the pitambar, is kept for auspicious occasions. Ready-to-wear dhoti pants and readymade panchakachams are a newer fashion and are not the same garment. The names mundu and veshti are often used loosely for it, but those cloths are wrapped differently.

Origins and history

The dhoti grew out of the ancient antriya, a cloth passed between the legs, tucked at the back and pleated at the front. The oldest depictions found in inscriptions date to the Mauryan Empire. In the Sunga period two ways of wearing it were distinguished: sakaccha, where the cloth passes between the legs and is tucked behind, and vikaccha, worn more like a lungi. Stitched clothes spread with the arrival of Persians and Greeks, yet the dhoti continued in both forms. According to G. S. Ghurye, the firmly fitted style was worn mostly by farmers and martial artists.

Religion and ritual

Unstitched cloth carries meaning in several communities. Conservative Jain men wear the pancha when they visit a derasar or basadi for puja, since unstitched clothing is held to be less open to pollution and so more fitting for ritual. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness asks its Western members to wear a pancha, usually saffron or white and folded in a Bengali style. At some temples in South India, men go without a shirt when they enter, as stitched garments are thought to work against the energy of the idol. Elsewhere a shirt is worn with the dhoti.

Wearing and wrapping

In the formal style, the cloth is looped and tucked so that it wraps each leg separately, close to the shape of trousers. In a shorter, casual style, it covers both legs firmly: the back is drawn to the front, tucked at the waist, and the loose ends are secured behind. South Indians know the formal wrapping as panchakacham. Men may add a shirt or kurta, and at certain temples they wear the dhoti alone. Wrapping is a skill that has been passed down, and today fewer men learn it.

Today and change

Daily use of the dhoti has declined from its former place in the subcontinent. It now appears mostly at religious gatherings and some secular functions. Many men no longer know how to wrap one. In cities such as Bombay, now Mumbai, English dress displaced it, and stitched clothing was described as caste neutral, unlike older styles of wrapping that differed between communities. Kurta-pyjama sets, which came with the Mughal Empire from Central Asia, are often worn instead. In rural India the dhoti is still common, while in some city spaces wearers face being seen as poor.

How Dhoti is kept

Men wear the dhoti, and women wear the sari it answers. A single length of cloth is taken and wrapped at the waist. For the formal panchakacham, the cloth is looped around each leg and tucked, giving a trouser-like shape. In the simpler style the back is pulled forward, tucked at the waist, and the loose ends are tucked behind so that both legs are covered firmly. Farmers and martial artists are associated with the close-fitting way. At Jain derasars and some South Indian temples, the wearer may leave the upper body bare; elsewhere a shirt goes with it.

When and where

The dhoti has no fixed day of its own. It is worn for puja at temples and derasars, at weddings and receptions, and on formal occasions, and it stays everyday dress for many men in rural areas.

The dhoti belongs to the Indian subcontinent, with India and Bangladesh given as its home. It is strongest in rural India, where many men still wear it, and in South India, where the formal wrap is called panchakacham. Sikh men wore it in the Punjab. In South Canara, Christian men wore it to weddings and receptions until the 1960s.

What Dhoti means

Worn without a shirt during British colonial rule, the dhoti became a sign of cultural identity and resistance. At the height of the independence movement, weaving khadi stood for the swadeshi cause, and in 1921 Gandhi took up the dhoti, often without a shirt, to align himself with the handicrafts of rural and poor people. For Jain worshippers, cloth that is unstitched is considered less exposed to pollution and so better suited to ritual. Many men treat it as formal dress, unlike the casual lungi.

Questions people ask about Dhoti

See also

PashminaUltra-fine wool of Himalayan goats, hand-woven in Kashmir into shawls of rankSherwaniA long buttoned coat for men, worn at weddings and state occasions in South AsiaMangalasutraA necklace tied by the groom at a wedding, worn through married lifeSariAn unstitched length of cloth that women drape around the body, worn across South Asia

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• Sartorial quirkinessDeccan Herald, Article
• Gandhi Jayanti: When Mahatma Gandhi turned ‘half-naked fakir’ in Tamil NaduHindustan Times, Article
• Dhoti dynamicsThe Hindu, Article
• Sartorial quirkinessDeccan Herald, Article
• Gandhi Jayanti: When Mahatma Gandhi turned ‘half-naked fakir’ in Tamil NaduHindustan Times, Article
• Dhoti dynamicsThe Hindu, Article

• Dhoti on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.