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Ṛta Kapur Chishti, a Sari historian and recognised textile scholar, has documented 108 ways of wearing a Sari in her book, ‘Saris: Tradition and Beyond’. The book documents the Saree drapes across fourteen states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.

The Nivi drape was borne out of necessity to pander to Victorian sensibilities and is a vestige of the colonial past. Jnanadanandini Devi, sister-in-law of Rabindranath Tagore, crafted the Nivi drape and borrowed the blouse and petticoat as a means of fitting into a British dominated social structure while maintaining an Indian identity.

The British attempted to formalize the complex Indian culture by fitting it into well-defined stereotypes. The Sari did not fit into the ethos of the Victorian era, which prioritized modesty over freedom of movement. The British could not accept the fluidity of Indian culture and felt the need to impose their singular world-view through political and cultural hegemony.