Culture in the Vanity Bag

Culture in the Vanity Bag is an informal but ecological study of Indian clothing and adornment. It is mainly about the historical evolution of costumes and seeks to illustrate their relationship with different cultures that have been seen in India.

Chaudhuri’s descriptions are animated by great attention to detail, anecdotes, extracts from novels and Sanskrit texts. There is more in this book besides simple entertainment and elementary information.

NIRAD C. CHAUDHURI CBE was born on November 23, 1897, in Kishorganj, now in Bangladesh. Chaudhuri’s first book, Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, written in 1947, was an instant success and received universal critical acclaim. In 1955, Chaudhuri first visited England to broadcast a series of talks for the BBC, and this memorable journey prompted him to write A Passage to England. He migrated to England in 1970 and lived in Oxford, England till his death in 1999.