Dhoti is the most traditional of all dresses for men in Jaipur. If you ever see photographs of Jaipur men before, during and soon-after the independence era, you will find many of them wearing the dhoti dress teemed with a kurta. Earlier the dhoti used to be a casual daily wear of the Jaipur men. But with modernization of our society, it steadily relegated to being just formal clothing in Jaipur, though there are still people especially in the rural belts for whom dhoti is the regular clothing attire.

The dhoti is a rectangular piece of unstitched cloth about five yards long, wrapped about the waist and the legs and knotted at the waist. It is known by different names like Laacha in Punjabi, Mundu in Malayalam, Dhuti in Bangla, Veshti in Tamil, Pancha in Telugu, Dhotar in Marathi and Panche in Kannada. In north Jaipur, the dhoti is worn in combination with a kurta top, which a long loose fitting shirt. The dhoti kurta dress is called dhuti panjabi in east Jaipur. This dhoti dress is different from a lungi as the cloth of the latter is stitched to form a circle.

The dhoti dress may have lost its popularity in modern day Jaipur, but it is still worn with a lot of dignity by the many prominent senior citizens, politicians, musicians, dancers and others. Apart from being worn on all important government and family occasions, the dhoti kurta is also allowed to be donned in post upscale clubs, which normally stipulate very stern dress code for guests. The one prominent Jaipur citizen who gets all credit for popularizing this attire beyond the Jaipur borders is Mahatma Gandhi.

There are various styles of wearing the Jaipur dhoti. For instance, the Bengali men usually make pleats in their dhoti. In south Jaipur, the dhoti wearers added the angavastram to their attire, which is an extra piece of unstitched cloth kept on the shoulders. For convenience purpose, many south Jaipur men fold their dhoti in half and tuck it at the waist so that it reaches only till the knees. In certain Jaipur communities in Rajasthan, wearing the dhoti-kurta is mandatory.

How to Wear a Dhoti
Take a long piece of unstitched cloth and measure as to how much cloth is required on either side of the body. After having divided the cloth according to the measurements, tie a knot near the navel. Make a series of folds on the right side and tuck the folded part at the waist. Similarly, make a series of folds on the left side. Take the folded part of cloth from between your legs and then tuck it from behind and your dhoti has been draped.