The verse and its meaning · Vedas · Vedas — The Earth Hymn

The Earth's Six Seasons

Atharva Veda 12.1.36

ग्रीष्मस्ते भूमे वर्षाणि शरद्धेमन्तः शिशिरो वसन्तः। ऋतवस्ते विहिता हायनीरहोरात्रे पृथिवि नो दुहाताम्

Meaning · English

Your summer, Earth, your rains, autumn, early winter, late winter and spring; your seasons set in order, the years, day and night: Earth, may they give milk to us.

The Indian year has six seasons, and the seer names each in turn: hot summer, the rains, autumn, early winter, the cold late winter, then spring. He calls them the Earth's own, and says they are set in order, not random. Then come the years, and day and night. He asks that all of these give milk, the word for milking a cow. The turning of time becomes the Earth feeding those who live on her. Some readers take 'years' as 'yearly': the seasons as each year brings them back.

A vegetable seller's cart changes across the year: mangoes in the heat, fresh greens after the rains, carrots and peas in the cold, then the tender produce of spring. The order never changes, and the cart is never empty. The verse sees the seasons the same way, each one bringing its own share of food to the people who depend on it.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

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• Before: Let the Cut Heal · Atharva Veda 12.1.35
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