Friendship is a recurrent theme in women's wedding songs of Kangra, valley at the base of the Himalayas in northwest India. Unmarried are bonded through the performance of these and are celebrated in the texts. This essay addresses the intersection friendship, a folklore genre, and a life cycle transition women in Kangra. Centering my discussion around images of in suhāg wedding songs, I will focus on the following questions: is friendship culturally acknowledged only when women unmarried? Why is this genre associated with unmarried girlfriends in song and lived experience, although women of all sing suhāg? Finally, when individuals pass through disorienting cycle transitions, how might friends and folklore genres surrounding passages serve to ease it?
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Kirin Narayan (1986) studied this question.
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