Associating warrior women with the invention of trousers was not irrational. Trousers were a practical innovation of men and women who domesticated horses on the steppes, optimally designed for riding long distances and engaging in activities on horseback. Early European travelers remarked on the trousers worn by the women of the Caucasus (white for young girls, red for married women, and blue for widows and older women). The efficiency of trousers is vividly illustrated in
Indian accounts of the Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi, the heroine of the 1857 Indian Rebellion against the British. After her husband was killed, the rani immediately drew the front of her sari between her legs and tucked it into a belt to create loose trousers so that she could ride into battle. This style was called veeragacche, “soldier’s tuck” or “hero’s girdle.” The traditional saris of the Mahratta (Maratha) tribeswomen and others were worn “kasata”-style, tucked up at the back of the waist to create baggy breeches, much like a man’s dhoti. This style was said to have originated “in the old days” when the women were “expert horsewomen and rode to war side-by-side with the men.” Likewise, wide skirts preserved in steppe nomad women’s burials could easily be adjusted for riding.11
Another striking illustration of trousers as a crucial military technology occurred in China during the Warring States period (fifth through third centuries BC), when Chinese rulers struggled against the powerful horse nomads of Inner Asia known as the Xiongnu. These male (and female) mounted archers naturally wore pants, while the Chinese at that time wore robes. The Zhan Guo Ce (“Chronicles of the Warring States”) describes how King Wuling of the Zhao State (northwest China, 325-299 BC) realized that his infantry was no match for the mounted archers. He also saw that his commanders on horseback were impeded by their long robes. Wuling ordered his people to adopt the barbarians’ uniform of trousers, boots, and fur caps and to practice horsemanship. But his officers resisted. Acknowledging that it might take generations before his Chinese soldiers stopped laughing and accepted “such strange and perverse attire,” Wuling set the example by donning trousers himself to promote his reforms. Eventually it was the semibarbarian state of Qin (western China) that fully adopted the winning combination of Xiongnu-style cavalry and trousers, conquered the nomads, and unified the Warring States (221 BC; see chapter 25).12
Over time, as cavalry became more and more important in warfare, trousers became prestigious attire for noble horsemen of the Roman Empire and for medieval European knights. The practicality and high social status of trousers spread to other males in the Western world, and the strong historical correlation between horse riding and unisex nomad attire, once understood by the Greeks, was forgotten.
World History
