The sari's origins are obscure, in part because there are so few historical records in India compared to most other major civilization Yet we know that Indians were wearing lengths of unsewn cloth draped around their bodies long before tailored clothes arrived. On of the earliest depictions of a sari-like drape covering the entire hod dates back to about 100 BC. A north Indian terracotta (Shunga period c. 200-50 sc) depicts a woman wearing a sari wound tightly around her entire body in the kachchha style. This elaborate, body hugging style represented in the terracotta may have evolved among India's temple dancers in ancient times to allow their limbs freedom o movement while at the same time maintaining their societies’ standards of modesty.
Saris draping the entire body may have also been worn by various regional and ethnic groups at the turn of the first millennium AD. Many sculptures of the Graeco-Indian Gandharan civilization (50 BC-AD 300) show a variety of different sari draping styles. In addition, a terracotta from eastern India, dated to AD 300-550 From the Gupta period, which takes its name from the major ruling dynast of the time) and which is in the Brooklyn Museum, depicts a woman wearing a full-skirted sari draped around her entire body. She is holding a fan of unusual type, suggesting she may be from a 'foreign' place.
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