Right & Left

[Alec McAllister]

In British folk-dancing, the lady is invariably on the man's right 
for the (originally) very practical reason that if she were on the 
left, she'd trip over his sword, which was usually worn on the left.
 
To 20th century urbanites, this is less than obvious, but had a 
perfectly good reason when the dances were being invented. Could 
there have been some similar reason practical reason, now lost, for 
the Indian practice?

Alec McAllister
Arts Computing Development Officer
Computing Service
University of Leeds
United Kingdom
tel 0113 233 3573
email: T.A.McAllister at Leeds.AC.UK