Odhani (Head covering)

Odhani is the most elegant part of the traditional costume of the women of India. It is a fine piece of cloth, generally decorated along the borders and the pallu occasionally with floral butis all over on the ground. Loosely covering her head and passing round her shoulders, the odhani is a symbol of her modesty, as it thinly covers her feminine charm. Various kinds of odhanis are seen in miniature paintings giving us some idea of the way it was draped by women in the earlier centuries.

This odhani is a rare example of tinsel work probably from Burhanpur. The ground is decorated with floral sprayed butis all over. The butis are printed in red and green and over printed with an outline of gold. It is very interesting that this kind of buti pattern appears on the borders of Deccani miniatures. The pallu or two ends of the odhani are decorated with a diaper of cartouches containing flowers in orange colour on gold ground and a band of long double leaves. It has a running border of a floral creeper design on gold ground.