Aman Mehta at 18:30, 3 January 2026

2026-01-03T18:30:44Z

New page

{{short description|Poetic genre}}
{{Use dmy dates|date = February 2020}}{{Use Indian English|date = February 2020}}
[[File:The Month of Ashadha (June-July), Folio from a Barahmasa (The Twelve Months) LACMA M.71.1.26.jpg|thumb|The month of ''[[Ashadha]]'' (June–July), folio from a Barahmasa painting ({{circa|1700–1725}}) |alt=|310x310px]]
'''Barahmasa''' ({{literal|the twelve months}}) is a [[Poetry|poetic]] [[genre]] popular in the [[Indian subcontinent]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Raheja|first=Gloria Goodwin|date=2017|title="Hear the Tale of the Famine Year": Famine Policy, Oral Traditions, and the Recalcitrant Voice of the Colonized in Nineteenth-Century India|journal=Oral Tradition|language=en|volume=31|issue=1|pages=|doi=10.1353/ort.2017.0005|hdl=10355/65381|s2cid=164563056|issn=1542-4308|quote=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...|doi-access=free|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Raeside|first=I. M. P.|date=1988|title=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.|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/barahmasa-in-indian-literatures-songs-of-the-twelve-months-in-indoaryan-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/C837E45A7DD3E8B889D75356311D82F2|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|language=en|volume=120|issue=1|pages=218|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00164652|s2cid=197840649 |issn=2051-2066|via=|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Dwyer|first1=Rachel|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/1768150|title=Key Concepts in Modern Indian Studies|last2=Dharampal-Frick|first2=Gita|last3=Kirloskar-Steinbach|first3=Monika|last4=Phalkey|first4=Jahnavi|date=2016|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-1-4798-2683-4|location=|pages=|language=English|chapter=Monsoon|quote=Conversely, the sixteenth century tradition of Hindi poetry known as Barahmasa (lit. ‘songs of the twelve months’), which also appears in...|via=Project MUSE}}</ref> derived primarily from the Indian [[folk poetry|folk tradition]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wadley|first=Susan Snow|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuyTqD0Ybw4C|title=Essays on North Indian Folk Traditions|date=2005|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-81-8028-016-0|location=|pages=57|language=en|quote=Evidence indicates that the Barahmasa originated in folk poetry...}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Orsini|first=Francesca|title=Before the divide: Hindi and Urdu literary culture|date=2010|publisher=Orient BlackSwan|isbn=978-81-250-3829-0|editor-last=Orsini|editor-first=Francesca|location=New Delhi|pages=143|chapter=Barahmasas in Hindi and Urdu|oclc=490757928}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Claus|first1=Peter J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ienxrTPHzzwC|title=South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka|last2=Diamond|first2=Sarah|last3=Mills|first3=Margaret Ann|date=2003|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-93919-5|location=|pages=52|language=en|quote=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.}}</ref> The progression of months (according to the [[Hindu calendar|Hindu lunar calendar]]) is a fundamental component of the genre, but the number of months is not necessarily ''barah'' ({{Langx|hi|बारह}}, [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]]:𑂫𑂰𑂩𑂯, {{Langx|ur|{{nastaliq|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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Alam|first=Muzaffar|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/25916|title=Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia|publisher=University of California Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-520-92673-8|editor-last=Pollock|editor-first=Sheldon|location=|pages=|language=English|chapter=The Culture and Politics of Persian in Precolonial Hindustan|quote=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.}}</ref>

Although originally an [[oral tradition]], the genre was incorporated into longer poems, [[Epic poetry|epics]] and [[narrative]]s by a number of Indian poets<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Orsini|first=Francesca|title=Before the divide : Hindi and Urdu literary culture|publisher=Orient BlackSwan|year=2010|isbn=978-81-250-3829-0|location=New Delhi|pages=147|chapter=Barahmasas in Hindi and Urdu|oclc=490757928}}</ref> across major [[Modern Indo-Aryan]] languages including—[[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]], [[Hindi]], [[Urdu]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Rajasthani languages]], [[Bihari languages]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] etc., and can be found in the folk poetry of the tribal people too.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wadley|first=Susan Snow|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuyTqD0Ybw4C|title=Essays on North Indian Folk Traditions|date=2005|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-81-8028-016-0|location=|pages=54|language=en}}</ref>

== Origins ==

=== Etymology ===
The word ''barahmasa'' derives from the word ''barah'' ({{Langx|hi|बारह}}, [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]]: 𑂫𑂰𑂩𑂯 {{Langx|ur|{{nastaliq|بارہ}}}}) meaning "twelve" and ''masa'' ({{Langx|Bho|𑂧𑂰𑂮}}, {{Langx|ur|{{nastaliq|ماہ}}}}) meaning "month".<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Srivastava|first=P.K.|date=2016|title=Separation and Longing in Viraha Barahmasa|url=|journal=The Delhi University Journal of the Humanities and the Social Sciences.|volume=3|pages=43–56|via=}}</ref> Similar [[cognate]]s are employed to denote the same genre in other languages such as ''baromasi'' in [[Bengali language|Bengali]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last1=Bose|first1=Mandakranta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NW0dAAAAQBAJ|title=A Woman's Ramayana: Candrāvatī's Bengali Epic|last2=Bose|first2=Sarika Priyadarshini|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-07125-7|location=|pages=30–32|language=en}}</ref>

== Literature ==
[[File:Bramahmasa_series.jpg|alt=bhadon month|thumb|An illustration to the month of ''[[Bhadon]].'' |border]]

=== Hindi-Urdu ===
The ''barahmasas'', along with ''saṭ-ṛtu'' (‘six seasons’) genre, were incorporated in the [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]] ''premakhyans'' (‘romances’),<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Pandey|first=Shyam Manohar|title=Studies in early modern Indo-Aryan Languages, Literature, and Culture : research papers, 1992–1994, presented at the Sixth Conference on Devotional Literature in New Indo-Aryan Languages, held at Seattle, University of Washington, 7–9 July 1994|date=1999|publisher=Manohar Publishers & Distributors|others=Entwistle, A. W.|isbn=81-7304-269-1|location=New Delhi|pages=287, 303, 306|chapter=Brahamasa in Candayan and in Folk Traditions|oclc=44413992}}</ref> [[Rajasthani language|Rajasthani]] ''rasaus'' ('ballads') such as the ''Bisaldev-ras'' of ''Nalha Kavi<ref name=":1" />''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vaudeville|first=Charlotte|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3sYNAAAAIAAJ|title=Bārahmāsā in Indian Literatures: Songs of the Twelve Months in Indo-Aryan Literatures|date=1986|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-0185-1|location=|pages=12|language=en}}</ref> as well as in the works of the renowned [[Braj Bhasha]] poet [[Keshavdas|Keshavadas]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sodhi|first=Jiwan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kj583zZs2dMC|title=A Study of Bundi School of Painting|date=1999|publisher=Abhinav Publications|isbn=978-81-7017-347-2|location=|pages=54|language=en|quote=Amongs all these poets, the most popular was Keshavdasa, the renowned poet laureate of Raja Inderjit of Orchha. He gave new meaning to the Barahmasa...The Baramasa motif in Brajbhasha poetry not only gave freshness...}}</ref> A few devotional ''barahamasa'' attributed to [[Tulsidas]] and [[Surdas]] themed mainly around the worship of [[Rama]]-[[Krishna]] have been found too.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vaudeville|first=Charlotte|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3sYNAAAAIAAJ|title=Bārahmāsā in Indian Literatures: Songs of the Twelve Months in Indo-Aryan Literatures|date=1986|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-0185-1|location=|pages=41|language=en|quote=...traditional barahamasas form in their religious works to the glories of Rama and Krishna...in fact a barahmasa attributed to Tulsidas...}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

The ''barahmasas'' first appeared in [[Hindi]] and then gradually in [[Urdu]] as well. According to [[Francesca Orsini|Orsini]], they were "perhaps the first substantial genre in the boom in commercial publishing in north-India of the 1860s."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Orsini|first=Francesca|title=Before the divide: Hindi and Urdu literary culture|date=2010|publisher=Orient BlackSwan|isbn=978-81-250-3829-0|editor-last=Orsini|editor-first=Francesca|location=New Delhi|pages=169|oclc=490757928}}</ref>
=== Bhojpuri ===
Barahmasa in Bhojpuri language is a folk song genre which is sung throughout the year. Theme of these songs are based on human nature of love and separation.
One of the earliest form of Barahmasa is found in Gorakhnath Baani and Bharathari's writings of 11th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Neeran, Mishra |first=Arunesh, Chitaranjan |title=Purain Paat |publisher=Vishwavidyalaya Prakashan |year=2002 |isbn=8171243045 |location=Varanasi |pages=14-21 |language=Bho |trans-title=Old Book}}</ref>

=== Bengali ===
In [[Bengali language|Bengali]], ''baromasis'' were incorporated in the devotional literature known as [[Mangal-Kāvya|''Mangal-Kavya'']] and [[Chandravati (poet)|Chandravati's]] adaptation of the Hindu epic [[Ramayana]] wherein [[Sita]] recollects her experiences with [[Rama]] through a whole year.<ref name=":2" />

=== Persian ===
The earliest and the only literary ''barahmasa'' in [[Persian language|Persian]] was composed by Sad-i-Salman. The poet, who lived in [[Lahore]], was probably influenced by Indian folk conventions. But its theme is neither a woman's longing nor union of lovers, and begins with the [[Iranian calendars|Iranian month]] of ''Parvardin''.<ref name=":3" />

=== Gujarati ===
In early nineteenth century [[Gujarat]], the poet-saint [[Brahmanand Swami|Brahmanand]] restructured Barahamasas and incorporated theology of [[Swaminarayan Sampradaya]]. His compositions fall under larger Krishna-bhakti poetry.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Swaminarayan Hinduism : tradition, adaptation and identity|date=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Williams, Raymond Brady., Trivedi, Yogi.|isbn=978-0-19-908657-3|edition=1st|location=New Delhi, India|oclc=948338914}}</ref> {{clear}}

== Paintings ==
The genre was also used by artists & painting schools such as 'Bundi school of painting' to make several miniature paintings depicting different months of the year. There are about 138 Barahmasa painting in [[National Museum, New Delhi|National Museum]], New Delhi. Most of these paintings were belong to late 18th century to early 19th century.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Beach|first=Milo Cleveland|date=1974|title=Rajput Painting at Bundi and Kota|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1522680|journal=Artibus Asiae. Supplementum|volume=32|pages=55–56|doi=10.2307/1522680|jstor=1522680|issn=1423-0526|via=|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

[[Category:Indian folk culture]]

Barahmasa - Revision history

Aman Mehta at 18:30, 3 January 2026