பக்கம்:தமிழர் ஆடைகள்.pdf/8

Introduction The history of costumes is as old as the history of human, a knowledge of which will be of immente use to the historians of buman civilization. The complexities of culture and civiliza- tion cannot be unfathomed fully without a deep understanding of the customs and conventions underlying the day-to-day lives of the individuals. These customs and conventions are an organic blend of various things of which the costumes are of cardinal importance. We cannot think of a human being who could not obsess' himself with his dress, at least a few moments of his every-day routine. That costumes have become deeply embedded in the life of man and consequently in the culture of maskind is too obvious to need further elucidation. A complete understanding of the costumes of a people is not just one of the essential resims of a historian's exploration; it is of unceasing interest to the generality of mankind too, in so far as it unravels before them the nuances of the daily lives of a people at a particular point of time, and also it may both in positive and negative ways influence our ways of dressing. We cannot afford to be the students of human history without having a "working knowledge of the history of costumes, since, as the Tamil saying goes, without cloths to cover him a san is but half of himself. And, living is a serious business, tremondously serious and important. All our modes of knowing and being costitute this vital business of mankiad. Our "belag' is the infrastructure and "knowing the superstructure of this wonderful edifice of human life. No doubt, these two structures, well-balsaced, complete the life on this earth. But there is an elepeat of crudeness and primitivity in this building'. It must be polished, given emblish- mest. An extriasic oreamentation done with the same serious. mess and care must be added to its intriesie strength and beauty. Such a refinement may not esbance the inner splcadour of the structure, but it is cever a luxury; it makes the form of the