Barahmasa

Barahmasa (lit. "the twelve months") is a poetic genre popular in the Indian subcontinent^[1]^[2]^[3] derived primarily from the Indian folk tradition.^[4] It is usually themed around a woman longing for her absent lover or husband, describing her own emotional state against the backdrop of passing seasonal and ritual events.^[5]^[6] The progression of months (according to the Hindu lunar calendar) is a fundamental component of the genre, but the number of months is not necessarily barah (Hindi: बारह, Urdu: بارہ) or "twelve" as similar poetic forms known as chaumasas, chaymasas and ashtamasas (cycles of four, six, and eight months, respectively) also exist in the same lineage of folk traditions.^[7]

Although originally an oral tradition, the genre was incorporated into longer poems, epics and narratives by a number of Indian poets^[8] across major Modern Indo-Aryan languages including—Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Rajasthani languages, Bihari languages, Punjabi etc., and can be found in the folk poetry of the tribal people too.^[9]

^ Raheja, Gloria Goodwin (2017). ""Hear the Tale of the Famine Year": Famine Policy, Oral Traditions, and the Recalcitrant Voice of the Colonized in Nineteenth-Century India". Oral Tradition. 31 (1). doi:10.1353/ort.2017.0005. hdl:10355/65381. ISSN 1542-4308. S2CID 164563056 – via Project MUSE. This song was written in the traditional form of a barahmasa (a "song of the twelve months"). In central and northern India, this is almost entirely...
^ Raeside, I. M. P. (1988). "Bārahmāsā in Indian literatures. Songs of the twelve months in Indo-Aryan literatures. By Charlotte Vaudeville with a foreword by T. N. Madan. pp. xvi, 139. DelhiMotilal Banarsidass, 1986. (Revised and enlarged English edition, first pub. in French, 1965.) Rs. 70". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 120 (1): 218. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00164652. ISSN 2051-2066. S2CID 197840649.
^ Dwyer, Rachel; Dharampal-Frick, Gita; Kirloskar-Steinbach, Monika; Phalkey, Jahnavi (2016). "Monsoon". Key Concepts in Modern Indian Studies. NYU Press. ISBN 978-1-4798-2683-4 – via Project MUSE. Conversely, the sixteenth century tradition of Hindi poetry known as Barahmasa (lit. 'songs of the twelve months'), which also appears in...
^ Wadley, Susan Snow (2005). Essays on North Indian Folk Traditions. Orient Blackswan. p. 57. ISBN 978-81-8028-016-0. Evidence indicates that the Barahmasa originated in folk poetry...
^ Orsini, Francesca (2010). "Barahmasas in Hindi and Urdu". In Orsini, Francesca (ed.). Before the divide: Hindi and Urdu literary culture. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan. p. 143. ISBN 978-81-250-3829-0. OCLC 490757928.
^ Claus, Peter J.; Diamond, Sarah; Mills, Margaret Ann (2003). South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Taylor & Francis. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-415-93919-5. The primary focus is on the human year, as formed and mediated by the climatic year and its associated...through the psychological shoals of the annual cycle.
^ Alam, Muzaffar (2003). "The Culture and Politics of Persian in Precolonial Hindustan". In Pollock, Sheldon (ed.). Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-92673-8. The succession of months is a fundamental component, but the number of months is not necessarily twelve. The songs known as chaumasas, chaymasas, and astamasas (cycles of four, six, and eight months, respectively) belong to same category. These are in some cases mere catalogs of seasonal festivals and read like a kind of calendar.
^ Orsini, Francesca (2010). "Barahmasas in Hindi and Urdu". Before the divide : Hindi and Urdu literary culture. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan. p. 147. ISBN 978-81-250-3829-0. OCLC 490757928.
^ Wadley, Susan Snow (2005). Essays on North Indian Folk Traditions. Orient Blackswan. p. 54. ISBN 978-81-8028-016-0.

[1] Raheja, Gloria Goodwin (2017). ""Hear the Tale of the Famine Year": Famine Policy, Oral Traditions, and the Recalcitrant Voice of the Colonized in Nineteenth-Century India". Oral Tradition. 31 (1). doi:10.1353/ort.2017.0005. hdl:10355/65381. ISSN 1542-4308. S2CID 164563056 – via Project MUSE. This song was written in the traditional form of a barahmasa (a "song of the twelve months"). In central and northern India, this is almost entirely...

[2] Raeside, I. M. P. (1988). "Bārahmāsā in Indian literatures. Songs of the twelve months in Indo-Aryan literatures. By Charlotte Vaudeville with a foreword by T. N. Madan. pp. xvi, 139. DelhiMotilal Banarsidass, 1986. (Revised and enlarged English edition, first pub. in French, 1965.) Rs. 70". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 120 (1): 218. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00164652. ISSN 2051-2066. S2CID 197840649.

[3] Dwyer, Rachel; Dharampal-Frick, Gita; Kirloskar-Steinbach, Monika; Phalkey, Jahnavi (2016). "Monsoon". Key Concepts in Modern Indian Studies. NYU Press. ISBN 978-1-4798-2683-4 – via Project MUSE. Conversely, the sixteenth century tradition of Hindi poetry known as Barahmasa (lit. 'songs of the twelve months'), which also appears in...

[4] Wadley, Susan Snow (2005). Essays on North Indian Folk Traditions. Orient Blackswan. p. 57. ISBN 978-81-8028-016-0. Evidence indicates that the Barahmasa originated in folk poetry...

[5] Orsini, Francesca (2010). "Barahmasas in Hindi and Urdu". In Orsini, Francesca (ed.). Before the divide: Hindi and Urdu literary culture. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan. p. 143. ISBN 978-81-250-3829-0. OCLC 490757928.

[6] Claus, Peter J.; Diamond, Sarah; Mills, Margaret Ann (2003). South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Taylor & Francis. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-415-93919-5. The primary focus is on the human year, as formed and mediated by the climatic year and its associated...through the psychological shoals of the annual cycle.

[7] Alam, Muzaffar (2003). "The Culture and Politics of Persian in Precolonial Hindustan". In Pollock, Sheldon (ed.). Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-92673-8. The succession of months is a fundamental component, but the number of months is not necessarily twelve. The songs known as chaumasas, chaymasas, and astamasas (cycles of four, six, and eight months, respectively) belong to same category. These are in some cases mere catalogs of seasonal festivals and read like a kind of calendar.

[:1-8] Orsini, Francesca (2010). "Barahmasas in Hindi and Urdu". Before the divide : Hindi and Urdu literary culture. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan. p. 147. ISBN 978-81-250-3829-0. OCLC 490757928.

[9] Wadley, Susan Snow (2005). Essays on North Indian Folk Traditions. Orient Blackswan. p. 54. ISBN 978-81-8028-016-0.

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