Barahmasa translates to “twelve months”. Each of a poem's lines, or stanzas, is dedicated to a different month of the year, and the months are handled in chronological sequence.
This is a completely vernacular genre for which no Sanskrit examples have been found.
- Barahmasa poems can be divided into several basic categories, including 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 chastity trial as she resists various temptati.
Charlotte Vaudeville's Barahmasa in Indian Literature, published in 1986, has further material.
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