Kurta

What it is

A kurta is a loose shirt or tunic with no collar, made in many parts of South Asia and worn in other regions as well. It is usually cotton or silk. Most kurtas are plain, but embroidery is common, and the garment may hang just above the knee or lower. The front and back are cut from rectangular pieces, and the side seams stay open near the hem, which lets the wearer move easily. Sleeves reach the wrist and are hemmed rather than cuffed. A traditional kurta has no collar, though standing collars are growing more popular.

Origins and history

South Asia received stitched clothing, cloth that is cut and sewn, from Central Asia. A writer on costume, Roshen Alkazi, describes a trickle during the Scythian, Parthian and Kushan invasions of the late ancient period, then a much larger flow with Mahmud of Ghazni and the Muslim conquests from the late twelfth century. From then the kurta became common dress in the early modern era. Alkazi points to wall paintings at Lashkari Bazaar in Afghanistan, showing palace guards in a mid-calf tunic with narrow sleeves. That tunic closed on the left shoulder, and the same closing still appears on kurtas in some parts of India.

Local styles

Different regions give the kurta their own shape and decoration. The Bhopali kurta is loose, pleated at the waist, and falls like a skirt to somewhere between knee and ankle. The Hyderabadi kurta is a short top that sits near the waist, with a keyhole opening at the neck, and was once worn by local royal households, usually in white. The Lucknowi kurta may be short or long, sometimes using twelve yards of cloth, and the name now means a straight-cut kurta with Chikan embroidery from Lucknow. A kalidar kurta is built from several panels and looks like a frock. The straight-cut kind is called a panjabi in Bangladesh, West Bengal and Assam.

Cloth and making

Kurtas for summer are often thin silk or cotton. For winter, thicker cloth is used, such as wool or khadi silk, a coarse silk spun and woven by hand that may be blended with other fibres. Linen, or a linen and cotton mix, suits the kurta pyjama in either season. Tailors cut the cloth so that almost nothing is wasted, using rectangular pieces, sometimes with gusset inserts, and decorative work can be elaborate. Fastenings include tasselled ties, cloth balls, loops and buttons, often of wood or plastic. Formal kurtas may have metal buttons decorated with jewels or enamel, fixed into the cloth like cufflinks rather than sewn on.

Today and change

Urban young people increasingly wear kurtas over jeans, in South Asia and in the South Asian diaspora, both recently settled and long established. Young women and girls in cities often pick a kurti, a short hip-length kurta, with jeans or leggings, beside older lower-body garments. Kurtas also serve as blouses over jeans, and blue denim goes with most kurta colours. In 2014 a family court in Mumbai ruled that a husband who objected to his wife's kurta and jeans and forced her to wear a sari had been cruel, and she was granted a divorce.

How Kurta is kept

A person puts on the kurta as a top, then adds a lower garment: pyjamas, a loose shalwar, a churidar, leggings or jeans. The kurta is slipped over the head or fastened at the front, where a hemmed slit, or sometimes a placket, is closed with a tie or a button at the top. Some styles fasten at the shoulder seam instead. A scarf may be worn with it, as in Assam, where the panjabi goes with a gamosa. Both men and women wear the kurta, and a short version, the kurti, is common among women.

When and where

The kurta has no fixed day. It is worn through the year and on formal occasions. Summer kurtas are usually thin silk or cotton, while winter ones use heavier cloth such as wool or khadi silk. Linen or a linen and cotton blend works for the kurta pyjama in either season.

The kurta belongs to South Asia and is worn almost everywhere there, with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh among its strongest homes. It is also worn in Afghanistan. Communities from South Asia keep it in Singapore and Malaysia, and across a wider diaspora. The word itself came into English from Urdu and Persian.

What Kurta means

The kurta is not tied to one faith or ceremony. It holds a double place in daily life: common dress and formal dress at once, worn by men and women alike. Local decoration gives each version a regional face, so that Chikan from Lucknow, Phulkari from Punjab or Sindhi mirrorwork marks where a person comes from. The closing at the left shoulder, kept from old Central Asian tunics, is a quiet link to that past.

Questions people ask about Kurta

See also

PaithaniA handwoven silk sari from Maharashtra, with a squared border and a peacock palluKebayaA front-opening blouse and wrapped cloth, worn by women across Southeast AsiaEid al-FitrThe feast that ends Ramadan, opened with morning prayers, sweets and visits homeDiwaliA five-day festival of lights celebrated across India and its diaspora to mark the victory of light over darkness.

Good reading and sources

• Comfort dressing is their mantraDeccan Herald, Article
• Pehran | UnknownV&A, Article
• Comfort dressing is their mantraDeccan Herald, Article
• Pehran | UnknownV&A, Article

• Kurta 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.