Women and Stringed Instruments:
a) Temple Sculpture (anklets!) b) Kalighat Painting (the women always have anklets and pointy shoes) c) Mid 19th century portrait (the attire appears late Mughal) d) Raja Ravi Varma’s woman playing sitar (love the casually discarded footwear detail, the sari is the Maharashtrian 9-yard teamed with a fitted bodice) e) Amrita Shergil in a sleeveless blouse (1930s) f) Lata Mangeshkar in the 1950s in trademark white sari.
UPDATE: The instruments: 1, 2 and 4-sitar, 3-lute, 5-veena, 6-tanpura.
PS: Post on retro-bridal here.
Vintage Indian Clothing 
These are such lovely pictures…I love the uniqueness of your blog 🙂
Thank you!
What a beautiful and well-researched post! Once again, thank you for sharing such lovely pictures and interesting information (loved the musical instruments).
As always thank you for visiting the site and your appreciative comments!