The list of ancestral rishis, usually one, three, or five, attached to a gotra and recited in rituals such as the wedding sankalpa to specify a lineage precisely. Families may share a gotra but differ in pravara; a shared pravara can, in strict practice, also bar a marriage.

Where this term appears

• What is a gotra? Essentials →

  Gotra and pravara Alongside the gotra sits a finer instrument, the pravara .

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