Kotha may refer to several places: *

Kotha, Jalandhar Kotha is a village in Shahkot in Jalandhar district of Punjab State, India. It is located from Shahkot, from Nakodar, from district headquarter Jalandhar and from state capital Chandigarh. The village is administrated by a sarpanch who is ...

, Punjab, India *

Kotha, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Kotha is a town and Union Councils of Pakistan, Union Council of Swabi District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. It is located at 34°4'0N 72°35'0E with an altitude of 335 metres (1102 feet). Kotha has three uni ...

, Pakistan *

Kotha, Punjab Kotha is a town and Union Councils of Pakistan, Union Council of Kasur District in the Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab province of Pakistan.

, India * In India ''kotha'', from Hindi, also refers to a brothel (See

prostitution in India Prostitution is legal in India, but a number of related activities including soliciting, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, prostitution in a hotel, child prostitution, pimping and pandering are illegal. There are, however, many br ...

); the literal meaning is rooftop and is still used for the same especially in and around

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

. Since

Tawaif A ''tawaif'' () was a highly successful courtesan singer‚ dancer‚ and poet who catered to the nobility of the Indian subcontinent, particularly during the Mughal era. Many tawaifs (" nautch girls" to the British) were forced to go into pro ...

s (courtesans) used to practice music and dance on the balcony/rooftop (kotha), this word became synonymous with a brothel in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

See also