Sarong

This Indian textile is the earliest documented example of a sarong that has been resist and mordant dyed. Tiny corresponding needle holes at both ends reveal that they were once hemmed together to form a tube skirt. The design may have originated in long cloths made up of panels with sawtooth ends. Instead of being divided between the panels, this cloth is cut in the middle of two adjacent panels so that the centre consists of sawtooth borders facing each other. The earliest complete batik sarongs, from the 1860s, have exactly the same design. The famous "Raffles" batik sarong in the British Museum (inv. As1939, 04.119), which has been cut and resewn, may originally have had the same format. Fine woven songket sarongs from Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula also share this design, and it is uncertain which is earlier.