The Origin of Cotton

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Ancient India: The Origin of Cotton Clothing Cotton is an excellent fiber that has been spun, woven, and dyed since ancient times, and it is still the most widely used fiber for clothes. In the Rig Veda people from the Indian Sub Continent wrote about cotton at around 600 BC. India was the first place in Eurasia where cotton was used for clothing, as early as 2500 BC in the Harappan period, they were for the first people to trade cottons, and they were the first people to inspire other countries into producing clothes made of cotton. Cotton plants were used to make cotton clothes in the Indian Sub Continent first by the Harappan people and then by all the people residing there. During the Aryan period, which started at around 1500 BC, women wore one very long piece of cloth called a sari, which they wrapped around themselves in different ways. The word “sari” comes from a Sanskrit word that just means cloth. Saris are first mentioned in the Vedas, about 600 BC. Rich women wore saris made of silk, but most women wore cotton ones. Most saris were five or six yards long, although some saris were nine yards. Younger women generally wore brightly colored saris, but widows and other women in mourning wore only white ones. Men also wore one long piece of cloth called the dhoti, which was generally white. They wrapped the dhoti around their legs to make something similar to a pant. Dhotis were shorter so it did not cover the chest and shoulders. Men also often wore long cotton cloths wrapped around their heads as turbans. Cotton was a very important resource to produce clothing for the people of India all throughout history. Through the resources of cotton, Ancient India started a strong cotton trade industry which helped the Indian economy to a great extent. In the 400 BC, Herodotus, a Greek historian, wrote that in India there were "trees growing
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