> In Kerala, at least, traditionally both men and women were bare > chested. This continued to be fairly common till about the early > 1900s. I vaguely remember reading that dress was caste related and > that certain castes (and religions) dressed differently.
Yes that's so. The Nairs were the group you were thinking of, right? Interesting that lot - matrilineal, with the guy going to his mother in law's house to live with his wife, That and the very unique (at least in India, and among more "mainstream" groups) concept of sambandham .. again, this died out around the 1920s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambandham
