UZBEK RARE SAMPLE OF ANTIQUE TOP CAPE ROBE PARANDJA N/R

We're proud of to offer a true sample of antique Uzbek women's top cape robe Parandja. Age is the early 20th century, made in Djizakh region. Djizakh design of Parandja is unusual with its lots of decorations and two cuts from both sides for hands (this cuts were useful for riding). Hand-woven silk+cotton ornamented with narrow blue strips. It is decorated with hand-embroidered silk and woolen trim, hand-embroidery with silk threads, silver lavalieres, old coins, tassels with old beads and silver threads, etc. Lined with Russian cotton.

Size: length-55 in, chest - 68 in

The history of Parandja (yashmak) is long and difficult. The word faranja (distorted parandja) from Persian means dress. Faranji was created in Egypt and from there was spread to other Eastern countries. In Central Asia with Sheybaniy ruling period (16th C) faranji-robe was clothes of scientists. In India and Central Asia with Bobur and Timurids, faranji was the overcoat of scientists, state officials and clergy. The word faranji was used for both men and women clothes. Central Asia yashmak was ancient prototype. Those expensive clothes had transformed in feudal period, changing in accordance with new time, yet saving its old original base. So, yashmak, of Central Asia women was based on faranji - holiday women robe, worn as overcoat. At the beginning of ÕÕ century in towns located in valleys there were used waist robe with short and narrow sleeves with carved armholes, a turn-down collar, pockets on sides. Such dressing-gowns were called "kamzul". When women went outside they covered themselves with Parandja (yashmak) - a large and loose robe with the long false sleeves that were called "dumi faranji" (tail of yashmak) bind together on the back. The face was hidden under thick rectangular net "chashmband" made of black horsehair. Yashmak was worn mainly in town where it was produced and sold on markets. In rural areas it was bought for braids from rich families, but mainly here were worn hand-made robes called "jelak" with narrow stripes made of white sheeting or red sateen with embroidery. It should be noted that women's cover like faranji was initially one of the elements of a bride's dress for whom marriage meant the first step out of parents' house. The everyday vocabulary of Uzbeks has such phrase as duhtari hona (means "domestic girl"); to some extent it coincides with Russian "marriageable girl". The meaning of the phrase "duhtari hona" is that the girl was not allowed to leave the parent's house with no exigency, and to her future husband's house she went covered with faranji and the net before her eyes as well as nowadays. Thus, faranji becomes the element of a holiday women's dress that is primarily used as bride's dress. Following practical functions of faranji we should tell about a peculiar underlining. It was the indicator of adaptation of this clothes to climate conditions of Central Asia. Thanks to its underlining faranji protected not only against cold during winter but also against wind for hot and often sweaty body of a woman with a baby during summer. Thus, we can see that elements of the cover that we are interested in were determined by climatic and natural conditions of the region. Faranji, unlike the closed female covers, for example in Afghanistan, was not pulled through the head, but due to its the dressing gown-like form it was thrown on the head. This was convenient for feeding mother when she left the house with a baby in her arms. The chishmband net, located from the head to the breast, allowed a woman to feed her baby, not showing her breast before possible strangers. This very facial net, which complemented to faranji, significantly contributed to the specific protection of mother and child against infectious diseases, which caused deaths of people during the epidemics. Sucklings, being under the maternal cover with the facial net, were protected against all possible sources of stress. From this viewpoint, female cover, in particular chishmband, provided babies with necessary comfort. Idea about the woman as a creature who needs protection related, in particular, to a pregnant woman. Society took care of her, prescribing the carrying of faranji for her as the guarding measure against the imaginary dark forces. Uzbeks believed that the impact of these forces, for example, on a pregnant woman, can also damage her fetus. This, among other things, explains why local women hid their faces with nets only before the climax. After this, women leaving their house under the cover, removed facial net thus walking in the street with open face. Popular beliefs and ideas regarding the need for wearing faranji help to open its specific symbolic functions. Certainly many of these popular beliefs are now lost; thus it is required to reveal them by analyzing the still existing measures. As was already mentioned, in Central Asia faranji was mainly worn mainly in towns and cities. In rural areas there was no need in faranji because most of the population were acquainted or related to each other (life of women was locked in the limits of the community). City, on the contrary, is the space of "strangers". Thus going out to the street, in accordance with the ancient custom of avoidance, women put on the cover which hid their figure and it possible for them to be not recognized.

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