Barahmasa

(“twelve months”) Poetic genre in which
each of the poem’s verses, or stanzas, is
devoted to one month of the year, with
the months treated in chronological
order. This is a purely vernacular genre
for which there are no known instances
in Sanskrit. Barahmasa poems often
reveal a great deal about everyday life
and can be subdivided into several basic
categories: an enumerative type, which
describes appropriate activities for each
month such as farming or religious
practice; a narrative form, which
recounts a woman’s longing (viraha) for
her absent lover; and a type describing a
young wife’s trial of chastity as she withstands various temptations during an
extended separation from her husband.
For further information see Charlotte
Vaudeville, Barahmasa in Indian
Literature, 1986.
86
Banjara