page_title: Gagra choli
section_title: Ritu Kala – significance in rite of passage
hierarchical_section_title: Gagra choli / Ritu Kala – significance in rite of passage
caption_attribution_description: English: Krishna flirting with the Gopis, to Radhas sorrow - Kangra Painting [ Himalayan ] 1760
context_page_description: Gagra choli or ghagra choli, which is also known as lehenga choli and locally as chaniya choli, is the traditional clothing of women from the Indian subcontinent, notable in Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in Nepal. In Punjab it was traditionally worn with the kurti and salwar. It is a combination of the gagra or lehenga and the choli, however in contemporary and modern usage lehenga choli is the more popular and widely accepted term by fashion designers, trend setters, and boutiques in South Asia, since ghagra is synonymous with the half-slip worn as an undergarment below the sari.
context_section_description: In southern India, coming of age ceremony or rites of passage (langa voni Telugu: లంగా వోని, Pattu Pavadai Tamil: பட்டு பாவாடை, Langa Davani Kannada: ಲಂಗ ದ್ವನಿ) are celebrated when a girl reaches puberty. She wears langa voni during the first part of the ceremony and then she is given her first sari, which she wears during the second half of the ceremony. This marks her transition into womanhood.
  The tradition of presenting langa voni begins with the girl's first naming ceremony called Namakaran and her first rice feeding ceremony called Annaprashana. She receives her last one at her coming of age ceremony. Langa voni is traditional clothing for unmarried girls in southern India.
caption: Pahari painting depicting women in Luanchari. ca.1760
exif: {"Image Software": "Picasa", "Image ExifOffset": "46", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "282", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8476", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "773", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "1024", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "773", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "146", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "8549721506b773931a060b213708aa7b"}