Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s6.50

v1.c3.s6.50

Rtu, ‘season,’ is a term repeatedly mentioned from the Rigveda¹ onwards. Three seasons of the year are often alluded to,² but the names are not usually specified. In one passage of the Rigveda³ spring (*vasanta*), summer (*grīṣma*), and autumn (*śarad*) are given. The Rigveda knows also the rainy season (*prā-vṛṣ*) and the winter (*himā, hemanta*). A more usual⁴ division (not found in the Rigveda) is into five seasons, vasanta, grīṣma, varṣā, śarad, hemanta-śiśira; but occasionally the five are otherwise divided, varṣā-śarad being made one season.⁵ Sometimes six⁶ seasons are reckoned, hemanta and śiśira being divided, so that the six seasons can be made parallel to the twelve months of the year. A still more artificial arrangement⁷ makes the seasons seven, possibly by reckoning the intercalary month as a season, as Weber and Zimmer⁸ hold, or more probably because of the predilection for the number seven, as Roth⁹ suggests. Occasionally the word ṛtu is applied to the months.¹⁰ The last season, according to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa,¹¹ is hemanta.