====================================================        Barahmasa: Songs Of Twelve Months ==================================================== Barahmasa, an ordinary term composed of two parts, ‘barah’ – twelve, and ‘masa’ – month, meaning that which covers or continues over twelve months and hence used sometimes also for perennially flowering plants and similar other things, has since long conventionalized in Indian tradition as a genre of poetry – folk or classical, secular or sectarian, but essentially romantic and intensely emotional. Not a wall-calendar, the leaves of which one tears off or turns after a month has passed, in the poetic convention of Barahmasa the soul, separated from the loved one, spans the time with every breath that it takes. Its calendar – days, weeks and months, is wide-writ on the nature’s face, changing minute to minute, from ejecting a bud’s petals or melting of a winter night into dew-drops and a friezing body sinking into another, to torrential rains with dark awful clouds rending with their roar the sky and the earth and shaking the body and soul. Intensity of emotions, especially the pangs of separation, in tune with or in contrast to what occurs in nature beyond, is a Barahmasa poem’s pith, and it is in this passionate yearning, fervency and cosmic magnification of an emotion’s intensity that Sufis and others in the line have discovered in the Barahmasa theme mystic connotations. Barahmasa, the ‘songs of twelve months’, as the Barahmasa is sometimes defined, is primarily the poetry of viraha – separation, the pangs of which change its face with nature’s every change but the degree of their severity does not change or rather only further aggravates with every change occurring around. Whoever the poet, male or female, it is usually a song presented as being sung in first person by a young woman tormented by the absence of her beloved and pining all twelve months for his return. It reveals on one hand her pain of separation, and on the other, nature’s face further aggravating it. The intimately and lyrically presented nature is _link_ed with the singer’s pain either through similitude or by painful contrasts. Essentially full of pathos the Barahmasa is the song of a woman deeply engrossed in love so much so that even a Sufi saint, singing of his intense desire to unite with the Supreme, imagined himself to be his Lord’s consort – a woman in love, every minute pining to unite with Him. Barahmasa : The Conflict Of ‘Within’ With ‘Beyond’ The Barahmasa poetry seeks thus its distinction on one hand in the intensity of an emotion – love in separation in particular, which attains sheerly by such intensity cosmic width and mystic dimensions, and on the other, in the portrayal of nature, which reveals to some its songs and symphony, and to others, its cruel tormenting face. Awe-striking or alluring, nature melts into lyrics, dances to its own tunes and rhythm and reels with an incessant series of pictures, delighting the eye but tormenting the lovelorn heart by its insensitive contrasts and cruel indifference or animosity. Barahmasa poetry is broadly a record of psycho-analytical reactions of the mind in love responding to cyclic changes of nature as they occur when its surroundings pass from one set of them to another, broadly, month-wise. Thus, a Barahmasa poem perceives its theme on two levels, one, whatever occurs in nature beyond, from this corner to that on the earth or in the sky, and secondly, the turmoil with which reels the heart in love that has its loved one sojourning in foreign lands. Nature affords to Barahmasa poetry its canvas, all pictures and colors, love, its spirit and essence, and endless continuity of its pangs month-after-month, its narrative technique and epical stretch and binds into one thread the two confronting worlds, the worlds of man and nature. A Genre Of Literature And Art Characteristic To Indian Soil Pictorially very rich and emotionally most fervent, the Barahmasa poetry, which subsequently had its transforms in Indian art, is a genre confining to Indian land, her literature and art. It has given to Indian literature some of its best lyrics, to medieval miniature painting, a rare theme and some of its most brilliant painting series, and to the folk tradition, some of its heart-touching lore and the most popular instrument to dispel the monotony of a low-spirited shivering winter evening. Not that they do not have a song or a landscape painting of brilliant Spring, sad Autumn or monotonous Winter, other traditions of the world literature and art are not known to have woven their woes, or any other kind of emotions, around each cyclic change of nature in such continuity as would have epical stretch and constituted a genre different from any other. Such inter-action-reaction of nature’s phenomena and human emotions as a Baramasa poem or painting series portrays is a rare feature of India’s literature and art; and perhaps, with her unique geography which subtle, constant and continuous cycle of seasons characterize, people’s emotional temperament of which love and sacrifice are the core, and conventions like those seeking to classify young lovers, male and female, as Nayakas and Nayikas, the soil of India alone could breed a genre like Barahmasa, in literature or art. Neither the Western nor any other hemisphere has such subtly transforming nature with each season having a phenomenal distinction of its own, such emotional bent of mind and so minutely analyzed understanding of those in love as has the Indian soil. Unlike many other theologies which do not attribute to love any kind of spiritual or heroic status, in Indian way love is both, personal timidity as also heroic, and mundane as well as transcendental, and this has helped a genre like Barahmasa to become the vehicle of both the mundane emotions and spiritual elevation. Brimming with the finest of imagery and the tender-most emotions Barahmasa, ever the tool of masters and the most distinctive genre of Indian poetry and art, especially the miniature painting, comprises the rarest of the rare collection of any art lover. It is a live tradition in both literature and art – songs still composed and sung, and miniatures yet painted, both breathing the same medievalism as breathed a seventeenth-eighteenth century leaf. One might yet find artists trained in modern art institutions resorting to medieval miniature painting technique trying their hands on Barahmasa theme and seek their distinction. Ritu-Varnan, The Initial Form Of Barahmasa Ritu-varnan, usually the shad-ritu-varnan – the portrayal of six seasons, or ritu-samhara – celebrating a season, Basant or other, was the initial form of Baramasa. However, while festivity, a mood to enjoy the budding of a new season, its colors and magic, was the nucleus of ritu-samhara, Barahmasa, the subsequent convention of vernacular literature seeking to wreathe human emotions, particularly pangs of separation, around the cycle of seasons, was more often the tool of a lovelorn heart. As suggest Ritu-Samhara, one of the Sanskrit classics by Kalidasa, and the rules ordained in a number of Sanskrit texts including Bharata’s Natya-shashtra, the emergence of a ritu was a public event when entire town or village gathered to welcome and enjoy it with light, colors, and dance sometimes accompanied also by a stage performance. Basantotsava, the festival of Basant dedicated to love god Kamadeva and his consort Rati, was the most widely celebrated ritu festival. The Term Ritu In Vedic Literature The earliest allusion to the word ‘ritu’ is found in the Rig-Veda, though not exactly in the sense the term is now used. Yajna being the kernel of Vedic cult, the term ‘ritu’ has been used in the Rig-Veda in relation to yajna-rites. Though in the Rig-Veda the term ‘ritu’ also denoted a certain facet of nature, almost the same as it subsequently implied, in true Vedic context the term ‘ritu’ identified a period, or a division of time, specified for the performance of a certain yajna. The whole year was divided into – chaturamasa, three parts of the four months each and each part was associated with a specific yajna and was known as the ritu of such yajna. Sometimes the Vedas identify a certain season with a deity or god such as rains with Parjanya, another name for rain-god Indra and it is in invoking him that a certain ritu has been alluded to. Thus despite that terms like Basant, Grishma, Sharada etc., the names of various ritus, were also used in the Vedic literature, the term ‘ritu’ defined, not so much an aspect of nature’s cycle as the period of a specific yajna in the annual schedule of yajnas. Characteristic of Vedic mysticism, sometimes the Vedic literature perceives yajna as the manifestation of the Unmanifest Supreme, and ‘ritus’, as various aspects of yajna and thus of the Unmanifest. Through a _meta_phor, the Purush-sukta in the Rig-Veda perceives the cosmos as a great yajna dedicated to the Supreme Being, in which gods, the performers of yajna, used Basant, the spring, as the ‘ghee’ – melted butter, for oblation, Grishma, the summer, as fuel, Sharada, the autumn, as the food offered in the course of yajna, and Varsha, the rains, as the sacred water of sacrifice and for sprinkling it around the Supreme being, that is, ritus, the components of cosmic existence, were also the components of yajna, and thus His aspects. While talking of various species of frogs in yet another Sukta, the Rig-Veda not only alludes to Varsha as the originator of them all but in one of the verses also enumerates in perfect order all twelve months and the month-wise period of each ritu. Shad-Ritus In Vedic And Later Vedic Literature As regards the number of ritus, the Vedic literature has two perceptions. The Rig Vedic Samhitas classify the annual cycle into five seasons; namely, Pravard – rains, Gharma –summer, Sharada – autumn, Vasanta – spring, and Hemanta – winter. The Yajur-Veda and the Brahmans add Shishira – the season of cool days, to them and thus the cycle or the concept of Shad-ritus – six seasons, accepted as such ever since, becomes complete. Thus, by the time of Yajur-Veda and Brahmans the number of seasons as six had been finally determined. Sharada, the season of bright sun, lustrous moon and glowing blue sky, is the transitional phase between rains and winter, which corresponds to the days of autumn in the western hemisphere and is hence alike translated, though in Indian subcontinent autumn, the season when trees shed their leaves, comes after Spring and thus Sharada and Autumn are not the same. In this cycle both Hemanta and Shishira relate to winter but while Hemanta represents its coldest part, Shishira defines its diminishing phase. Texts, even those passages of the Vedas, under which the number of ritus is five, consider Hemanta and Shishira as one. It is the same with Basant, which unlike Grishma, the season of parching heat, is a pleasant phase of warmth which relieves from winter’s stings and prepares for facing the oncoming summer. Besides that many texts talk of the rains’ four months, the convention of peregrinating Buddhist, Jain and ascetics of other sects staying at one place for the four months of the rains suggests that monsoon season was considered to stretch over four months. This convention identifies Sharada just as a part of rains. Alike many texts do not consider Shishira and Basant as ritus. They talk of them as mere months – Shishira-masa and Vasanta masa, perhaps as both were just transitory. Thus under broad _frame_ and in line with the Rig-Vedic yajna-_base_d classification there are three seasons – summer, rains and winter, but with each of them divided into two parts their number rises to six. Obviously, the classification of the annual cycle into six ritus, made during later Vedic days, was more sensitive and minute. It was around then that a kind of inter-relationship between the changes of nature and man’s emotional world was first recorded. The names that the Taittiriya Samhita has used for each of the months are strangely connotative. Not mere names, they denoted also the peculiarities of the season to which they belonged. Basant comprised two months, Madhu (February/March) and Madhava (March/April); one suggestive of honey – sweetness, and the other, of one brimming with honey, the essence of Basant. Grishma comprised Shukra (April/May) and Shuchi (May/June), which variously means grief of separation, as also the blazing light of summer. In old days summer was the period when traders, warriors, craftsmen, masons among others went away to earn money for the rainy days, Nabha (June/July) and Nabhasya (July/August), associated with rains, denoted sky and the clouds rising there; Isha (August/September), the seed laid, and Urja (September/October), or energy, the seed’s sprouting, that is, fertility and vigor, denoted the post-rain season of sowing which is Sharada; Saha (October/November) and Sahasya (November/December), the months of winter, denoted one’s obligation to bear, and the season’s toughness; and Tapa (December/January) and Tapasya (January/February), associated with Shishira, were denotative of the earth’s rough face which it acquired after the dry winter. The Birth Of The New Genre No doubt, the term ‘ritu’, the number of ritus, some of their broad features and their period in the annual calendar begin appearing in the Rig-Veda itself. It was, however, in the Great Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, that the cult of describing a ritu as in Ritu-varnan – a secular poetic genre, first appears. Illustrating examples from early traditions, such as the Buddhist Thera-gathas, the songs of peregrinating Buddhist monks and nuns, some scholars opine that season-de_script_ion might have been initially the subject matter of ‘muktaka-kavya – free verse poetry, and only from such poetry the epical poetry might have borrowed it. Though nothing of such muktaka-kavya tradition now exists, except perhaps some religious songs of Thera-gathas estimated to have been composed in between 500 B. C. to 100 B. C., stylistic maturity and assimilation of numerous lyrical passages not directly _link_ed with their principal themes into the Great Epics suggest that there must have been a long tradition of poetry before it reached its apex in the form of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Intrusion of _expression_s like blue-necked peacock, cool breeze, blue clouds, Indragopa-insects among others, all essentially the components of monsoon de_script_ions and obviously of muktaka-kavya poetry, into the religious Thera-gatha songs indicate that season de_script_ions might have been those days the dominating feature of poetry, whatever its type, the religious free-verse or an epic. Ritu-Varnan In The Epics : The Ramayana And The Mahabharata Whatever their source, the Great Epics are the earliest reported poetry to comprise season de_script_ions. However, none of the Epics has anywhere a full cycle of seasons. The seasons described in them are usually isolated and often unrelated to the main theme. The Ramayana has de_script_ions of four major seasons – winter, spring, the rains and autumn with a sarga – sub-canto, devoted to each. Though described in natural sequence, each of them occurs in different parts of the Epic and isolated from each other. It is, however, greatly significant that the cult of wreathing one’s own world around a season begins to have its roots in the Ramayana. One winter morning during their sojourn in Panchavati when going towards river Godavari with Rama and Sita for ablutions, the harsh and cold winter reminds Lakshmana of the pathetic fate of his brother Bharata who has been used to luxuries and comforts and despite that he is ruling Ayodhya is passing his days like a hermit. He then criticizes Kekeyi, Bharata’s mother, for whatever has happened but Rama forbids him from doing so. Not merely that winter serves as a mere stimulus for his retrospection but he also describes it formally as cold and harsh and endowed with snow and frost.  It is alike significant that this entire sub-canto of Aranyaka-kanda has been composed as Lakshmana’s direct speech, another essential feature of Barahmasa genre. The entire narration in first person but impersonally made and hardly anything in it relates to the three characters of the story or their situation. The de_script_ion of Basant in the Kishkindha kanda is far closer to the Barahmasa convention for after Sita’s abduction by Ravana it truly transforms into a viraha song. Rama and Lakshmana have come to river Pampa in order to meet Sugriva. The passage begins with the de_script_ion of the river’s beauty to which is added the de_script_ion of Basant and Rama’s love-longings, something which seems to be merely contextual. However, this season-de_script_ion is not context-born. In this well-conceived passage the poet attempts at exploring the turmoil in Rama’s lovelorn heart after his separation from Sita in contrast to season’s beautiful glowing face. It more intimately explores nature and how it acts on a lovelorn mind. Rama is made to himself speak to his brother of the beauty of Basant, and all personally and intimately, not impersonally as in Lakshmana’s winter de_script_ion. He often asks Lakshmana to look at the beauty of nature around and at the same time gives vent to his grief of separation which such beauty further aggravates. The de_script_ions of monsoon and autumn are also in identical veins. While roaming alone on mount Malyavat Rama witnesses clouds gathering in the sky. It reminds him how Bharata and Sugriva are with their wives and crowns and he is without both. Rama’s encounter with autumn is scattered over several parts. If at one place he swoons when reminded of Sita, at other, he breaks with grief thinking how Sita enjoyed autumn in his company. Thus, despite that it describes just four seasons and those too isolated from each other, the Ramayana is the earliest known text to evolve the Barahmasa or at least the Ritu-varnan in Barahmasa vein, which sought to universalize a personal emotion using season or nature as its courier. The Mahabharata has hardly any kind of season de_script_ions except casually alluding to various months of the year or hours of the day like sun-set. Shad-Ritus In Other Sanskrit Texts And Canonical Literature As regards the full length Shad-ritu-varnan in proper natural sequence, its earliest examples are found in the poetry of Kalidasa, though there are opinions that the genre had attained its fully evolved form during the period in between him and Ashwaghosa. Nature de_script_ion is the core of many of Kalidasa’s works – Kumarasambhava, Meghdoot, Raghuvansa among others; however it evolves in its fullest accomplished form in the Ritu-samhara. Running into six cantos the Ritu-samhara describes in detail the six seasons of the year as per Indian calendar and how with each change in the season the mood and behavior of a young lover alters. In the Meghdoot the intensity of love-longing is far deeper. However, the Yaksha in exile weaves his passion only around the clouds and thus season de_script_ion confines only to the rains. Most of the subsequent Sanskrit texts – Bhattikavya by Bhatti, Kiratarjuniya by Bharavi, Shishupala-vadha by Magha, Naishadhacharita by Shriharsha among others, have come out with season-de_script_ions occupying sizeable space in each. Subject-matter in regard to season-de_script_ion has its presence in canonical literature at least since 3rd-2nd century B. C. with its first appearance in the Natya-shashtra by sage Bharata. Basically a work of dramaturgy the Natya-shashtra directs how seasons should be represented in a drama, especially on the stage through an actor’s performance – acts, gestures, facial demeanors and the like. In his Kavyadarsha, Dandin mandates that an epic should essentially include the de_script_ions of ocean, mountains, seasons, the moon and the sun rise, parks, gardens, water-sports and pleasures of love. The observations of Bharata and Dandin are quite brief aimed at giving some broad guidelines. It is however Rajashekhara who in his Kavyamimansha comes with all aspects of season de_script_ion including each season’s basic characteristic features, each season’s months-wise division, temperament of each month, imagery that a poet should use in representing a season, besides how the human mind reacts to a particular season. Thus, while on one hand Rajashekhara summarized how the seasons were portrayed in prior literature, on the other, he laid the canonical standards for those aspiring to portray seasons in their writings. As in most other things, Puranas also showed interest in season-de_script_ion. The Matsya Purana has a whole chapter dedicated only to the month of spring and the Samba Purana alludes to different colors of the sun in the six ritus. The Chitra-sutra in the Vishnudharmottarpurana prescribes certain general rules for the depiction of each of the four seasons. Shad-Ritu Varnan vs. Barahmasa Broadly, the genre known in the Sanskrit literature as ritu or shad-ritu-varnan is known in the literature of masses or in vernacular literature as Barahmasa, though while in the shad-ritu-varnan the annual calendar is classified into six parts, in Barahmasa, it is in twelve. In ritu-varnan the de_script_ion of nature’s changes is season-wise formalized and is often impersonal, in Barahmasa, it is more subtle, puritan, personal and intimate. The ritu-varnan aims at describing the aura and magic of nature as it emerges with the change of a season, or as conventionalized, though at times conjoining with it also the singer’s emotions, the kernel of Barahmasa is the turmoil of a loving mind that each of nature’s changes stimulates. The nature is dragged into the world of human emotions and represents the singer’s own vision of it. Being formal and impersonal, shad-ritu-varnan is the genre of gentry and its literature, but intimately felt in the blood the songs of the twelve months, that is, everyday life, of lovelorn heart belong to unsophisticated, uncultivated folk. Actually, it is immaterial whether the poet perceives the cycle of time in the _frame_ of six seasons or the twelve months, what matters is how he perceives it – formally and impersonally, or intimately and subjectively. The Kumarasambhava and the Ramayana both are epics, but, while the Ramayana represents an amalgam of various folk traditions, the Kumarasambhava is a classic observing all set norms of poetics and other conventions. This variously characterizes the nature de_script_ion in the two great texts. Rama, whose divinity often reveals in the Ramayana and who is represented as Ayodhya’s prince, on monsoon’s onset gives vent to his feelings as would an ordinary village lad.  Clouds gathering in the sky remind him of how Bharata and Sugriva are with their wives and in their kingdoms while he is without both. Such subjectivity does not reveal in the nature de_script_ion of the Kumarasambhava, though it is also in context to Parvati doing penance for winning Shiva’s love. Thus the ritu-varnan in the Ramayana is in Barahmasa vein, while that in the Kumarasambhava, in shad-ritu-varnan. Most Barahmasas are _base_d on the lunar calendar having months as Chaitra, Vaishakha, Jyestha, Asadha, Sravana, Bhadaon, Ashvin, Karttika, Agrahayana, Pausha, Magha and Phalguna. Each two of them are respectively the months of Basant, Grishma, Varsha, Sharada, Hemanta and Shishira. Types Of Barahmasas The Barahmasa has two basic forms, one, literary, and the other, oral. Literary Barahmasas are a part of the written literature and are endowed with poetic merit and compositional uniformity. In its other form Barahmasa is found in many oral traditions from Gujarat to Bengal and in entire north and central India. Several texts have just a part of Barahmasa, sometimes formalized as chaumasa – four months, chhayamasa – six months, or athamasa – eight months. In literary tradition there are two types of Barahmasa, one, viraha, and the other, religious. The religious Barahmasas are further divided into two categories, one spiritual, and other, personal or mundane. Kabir often talks of self as Rama’s consort every moment longing to meet Him. Sikhs’ first Guru Baba Nanak and fifth, Guru Arjan Deva, wove around twelve months the yearnings of his self to unite with the ‘Karta Purukh’ – the Creator, in the Barahmasa vein. The twenty-second Jain Tirthankara Neminatha renounced the world when his marriage procession reached the house of Rajimati or Rajala, his bride. This unique situation of Rajimati’s separation from Neminatha and its pangs have been the theme of a number of Barahmasa both in Jain texts and oral tradition. Kabir’s _meta_phor and Guru Nanak’s songs of twelve months comprise the spiritual type, while those of Rajimati, the mundane. Rajimati’s does not class as the viraha Barahmasa, not only because it is the theme of Jains’ religious texts but also because, even when personal, Rajimati’s yearnings are for a Tirthankara, the highest divinity in Jain sect. The intensity of Rajimati’s love for Neminatha had such sublimity that it transformed her into the Siddhi, an ascetic divine status to which none of the wives of other Tirthankaras could rise. However, Barahmasa, oral or written, as a genre, has broad five types, namely, religious, farming-related, narrative, viraha, and the Barahmasa of chaste woman’s trial. As suggest Thera-gatha songs, the religious type must have been the earliest, though its mystic dimensions might have been its later development after the emergence of devotionalism of which love was considered as the best ritual. In its initial form religious Barahmasa might have been a popular means for spreading the religious massage of Buddha and Mahavira in their respective religions. In some parts, especially Bengal, a farmer’s activities round the year, described month-wise, and his pathetic condition in contrast to his enormous labor, comprised the theme of Barahmasa poetry. Almost all Barahmasas are composed in narrative form; however, some of them have epical stretch and its narrative aspect is more accentuated. Most popular form of the genre is viraha Barahmasa. The genre has yet another type sometimes known also as kutani or duti-kavya – poetry of go-between. It portrays efforts of a hero trying to seduce a woman separated from her husband through a messenger. A part of the poem comprises dialogues between the lovelorn and duti in which the duti persuades her by various temptations, and the other, the dialogue between the lovelorn and her sakhi – friend, who advises her to forget her faithless husband and enjoy the boon of her youth. Enormity Of Barahmasa Model In Literature, Art And Music Not only literature, miniature painting and even music have resorted to the Barahmasa model for seeking in it narrative continuity, vivid imagery, intense emotions, lyrical fervency, rhythmic vibrancy and dramatic conflict of the worlds of man and nature, besides its mystic connotations. The mystics like the early 16th century poet Malik Mohammad Jayasi, Hindi poets like Keshavadasa, Senapati, Datta, and Deva and poets of regional languages like Mulla Daud, Bulle Shah among others have resorted to Barahmasa motifs and technique. Most of the Ragas in the classical music are set in accordance to various seasons – Hindol to Basant, Illustrative from its initiation Indian miniature painting has borrowed a lot from literature in general but Barahmasa in particular, which is one of its most important themes. It usually comprises twelve leafs serializing various seasons, sometimes the festivals occurring during such seasons, such as Holi in the month of Phalguna. In some series Radha replaces the lonely heroine. However, in most other cases it is a nayika separated from her loved one, usually a warrior, in whose context the cycle of the changing seasons is depicted. Paintings from hill states, Rajasthan and even smaller schools from Central India have resorted to Baramasa genre. Datia, one of the schools of painting in Central India, has painted a timeless series of Ashtayama, another form of Barahmasa series, now in the collection of State Museum, Lucknow. ===========================================    This article by Prof P. C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet ===========================================