Book Review | The Sari Eternal: How A Single Drape Wove India’s Civilisational Story |
Like the intricate tana-bana—the warp and weft that breathe life into a saree—The Sari Eternal: A Tribute by diplomat and author Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri unfolds as a finely woven tapestry of memory and meaning. Thread by thread, it draws together history and geography, culture and craft, labour and longing, revealing the saree not merely as attire but as a living archive.
This is not just a book of introduction, but a quiet illumination, a window into the many lives a saree has touched and shaped. In Puri’s own words, it is a “mobile museum of memory and identity—a cultural palimpsest where history, aesthetics, gender, ritual, and resistance are woven into enduring form".
Puri’s words do far more than define a garment; they breathe life into it. Through this evocative imagery, the author captures the sari as a living archive, one that moves with the woman who wears it, carrying centuries of stories in its folds. Her reflection beautifully encapsulates the sari’s long journey through time, tracing how a simple length of cloth evolved into a powerful symbol of culture, continuity, and emotion, stitched deeply into the personal and collective memory of India.
Ask any woman, and for her, a sari is not just an around-six-metre-long piece of cloth. It carries within its fold countless memories and emotions. For many earliest associations are with one’s mother’s sari, something endlessly comforting. The loose end of the sari, the pallu, becomes a child’s first refuge: a place to hide during play, a soft cloth to wipe away tears, and a symbol of warmth and security.
So many moments of childhood are wrapped in that single garment. Each crease seems to hold a story, each thread a memory. Beyond these personal........