THE FOOTWEAR-CELEBRATING THE SELFLESS

The religious and cultural tradition in India refers to the "lotus feet" of the Divine. The feet of the Divine are worshipped; those of the elders are venerated. The significance of the feet is unique in India. The feet symbolise a state of non-attachment, and without a sense of "I-ness" or "mine-ness". Robert Frost springs a surprise in his "After Apple Picking" with a similar hint: "My instep arch not only keeps the ache/It keeps the pressure of the ladder rounds," suggesting the "great acceptance" or the "great affirmation".

The feet deserve celebration with a variety of footwear very special to India, since ancient times. With diverse embellishment-the sculptures of the Budda from the Gandhara regions show the type worn by religious personages, the paduka,a wooden board cut in shape of a foot, with a post and knob in front between the big and second toes. They come in a vareity of shapes: fish, hour-glass, the foot itself indicating toes. Some were intricately carved or inlaid with ivory or brass-wire.

The scultupres of the second and third centuries show the Buddha and the Bodisattvas with simple strapped sandals, with one leather strap across the instep and another connecting the strap to the tip of the soles in front, in braided leather.

Monks avoide leather, oriented to the Ahimsa attitude, against killing of animals. Since wooden clogs made noise they were forbidden in the seminaries, so as not to disturb the mediating and the studying monks.

Miniature paintings of the Pahari School(seventeenth-nineteenth centuries, Rajputs) show people barefooted, especially in the presence of the Monarch. The prominently upturned toes, introduced during the time of the Emperor Jehangir whose name was Salim as a prince, gave the name "Slim Shahi." From Babur's to Akbar's reign, there were ornamental borders on the top edge and a colourful shaft contrasted with the lower portion.

The pointed shoe appeared in the nineteenth century. Mahrashtra was famous for doubletoed shoes, called "Mahrattis." Thee "Jooti" is not foot-specific: left can be right and right is also right. "Jutis" from Gujarat were heavy, about a kilogram, with multi-layered heel and with solid upper and strond back. The Peshawar jutis are aso heavy shoes. The "khummalis" have round toes. Nineteenth century Mumbai's "classic" type had a seperate ring stall for the big toe.

In the twentieth century Kanpur became famous by its mechanized tanning and shoe-making, mainly for the army. In the 30s and the 40s Agra and Chennai became important centres. The second half of the twentieth century mechanized footwear industry, mass-produced shoe components and shoes were assembled.

Some of the types were: the paduka, putta badda(covered ankles), padiguntimas(full boots), tula punni(padded with cotton wool), tittina pattika(with wings of patridge or decorated with horns of ram or goat),shoes with curved points like a scorpion sting or decorated with peacock feathers in ancient times: khapusa(covered knees); the vagura type not only protected the feet but the also toes; the khapusa covered the entire legs; the jangha covered the entire thighs; the kafsh was a high-heeled slipper shod with iron; the na'lain was a shoe with wooden soles. The sar maja was the riding boots.

The skins used were various, like the lion's,the tiger's, the panther's, the antelope's, the otter's, the cat's, the squirrel's, the owl's, etc.

The variety is truly Indian.