In Meghdhootam a exiled Yaksha sends this message to his lover through the monsoon clouds. He describes to the cloud the sights it would see on its way from Ramtek and Ujjain till it reaches Alaka in Himalayas. Kalidasa describes the arrival of monsoon clouds over Ujjain on the first day of Ashadha 15 June. This is a surprisingly accurate estimate of the date on which the monsoon rains arrive over this part of India.

Picture: Monsoon and morning mist at NandaPrayag, Uttarakhand.

Source: The Monsoons, P.K.Das

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

Mawsynaram is also in Meghalaya and is close to Cheerapunjee. Mawsynaram records were not as reliable as Cheerapunjee, but the available records suggest that the mean annual rainfall in Mawsynaram is 1141 cm. This is a little higher than Cheerapunjee’s.

Both these places lie on the southern slopes of Khasi hills, at the end of a deep valley running from south to north. The monsoon winds blow from the south and are trapped within the valley and eventually strike these two places at the end of the valley. That is what causes immense rain in these two places.

Source: The Monsoons, P.K.Das

Picture Credit: The Atlantic

By the end of the second century BC, Indian mariners appear to have learned enough about the monsoon winds and ocean currents. They sailed through a southern route across the Indian Ocean to the islands of Indonesia, with a stop over in Sri Lanka, instead of sailing along the coast. Odisha’s Lake Chilika was an important starting point for this voyage. That era of maritime exploration and trade is still remembered in Odisha in folklore and festivals. The festival of Kartik Purnima takes place in mid-November when the winds shift and begin to blow from the north. This marks the time of year that ancient mariners would have set sail for Indonesia. Families, especially women and children, gather at the edge of a water-body and launch paper boats with oil-lamps in the water.

Picture: Monsoon on the Railway Tracks at Nilambur, Kerala.

Source: Sanjeev Sanyal, The Ocean of Churn

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

There are large areas in India, such as Assam and Bengal, which experience violent thunderstorms in the pre-monsoon months of April and May. These are the well known Nor Westers or Kal Baisakhis, meaning a mass of dark clouds in the month of Baisakh. The rainfall is convective and can be as much as 5 cm in an hour but the rainfall is generally of short duration.

Pre monsoon showers in Kerala are known as Coffee Showers. In Karnataka they are called  Mango Showers. These help ripen the crop.

Picture: Monsoon mist and clouds over Beas river at Mandi, Himachal Pradesh

Source: The Monsoons, P.K.Das

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

The English astronomer Edmond Halley noticed the similarity between the monsoon and the land or sea breeze. He ascribed the monsoon winds to the movement of the Sun from the equator to the tropic and the consequent heating of land; and to the differential heating between land and ocean. Just like the sea breeze and land breeze.

He also identified that repeated appearances of comets to the naked eye in earth are visits of the same comet. The comet was named after him as Halley’s comet. Interestingly, the last visit of Halley’s comet was in 1986, exactly three hundred years after he published his theory on the cause of monsoons. The comet would next be visible in 2061.

Picture: Monsoon is the lifeline of the otherwise snowclad and remote Lahaul Valley, Himachal

Source: The Monsoons, P.K.Das

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

Wandering monks were common in India. However during the rainy season monks may end up crushing green herbs, vegetative life and little living creatures. The sacred canon of Theravada Buddhism, Vinaya Sukta, explicitly states that all bhikshus (Buddhist monks or devotees) are to enter Vassa, a three–month annual retreat. During this period (rainy season), the monks are to stay in one place. Vassa was practiced even among Jains and other Sramana sects like Ajavikas.

Picture: Jog Falls on a lean monsoon day, Karnataka

Source: Dimri AP et al. 2022. Monsoon in history and present. Journal of Palaeosciences 71(1): 45–74.

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

Kautilya’s Arthasastra (50–125 CE) refers to Varshamana. It gives instructions for setting up a rain guage or Varshamana. “In (front of) the store-house a bowl (kunda) with its mouth as wide as an aratni (24 angulag) shall be set up as rain-gauge (varshamána).”

It also provides a description of various types of rain clouds and a simplistic method for forecasting rains.

Picture. DudhSagar falls on the Karnataka – Goa border

Source: Kautilya’s Arthashastra, R. Shamasastry.

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

Himalayas keep the Indian land mass warm by blocking the cool air from the North. The Thar Desert is also a vital feature. The extreme heat in the Thar Desert generates a low pressure region as the hot air rises. This draws the monsoon winds towards the north west of India, advancing the monsoon.

Source: Lectures of Professor Ojha, Allahabad University

Picture Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Rig Veda has the famous Frog Hymn. It describes the onset of the rainy season with the croaking of frogs. In tropical countries, frogs bury themselves in sand during summer and await the rains. They emerge with the coming of rains and croak in chorus. The Frog Hymn describes the emergence of frogs and their behaviour at the advent of rains. The hymn also mentions the riches that frogs will deliver, an allusion to rains which will revive the earth and grant all riches.

Even today, Jyapus, the farmers of the Kathmandu valley, perform frog worship during the rainy season in order to secure their harvest. The Jyapu puts cooked rice and beans in the cavity of four clay containers resembling the figure of a frog. Then the Jyapu places the containers or the leaves in the four corners of his field. He stands in the middle of the field, looks upward and praises the frogs “O frogs, last year you have provided for us with plenty of rice and other grains. This year too give us plenty.” The concept of this simple ritual is almost exactly as that of the Ṛgvedic Frog Hymn.

Picture: Ganga on a clear monsoon day, upstream of Rishikesh

Source: The Rig Veda, Bibek Debroy and Dipavali Debroy.

The Adaptation of Monsoonal Culture by Ṛgvedic Aryans: A Further Study of the Frog Hymn. Gautama V. Vajracharya

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

Hippalus was a Greek navigator who discovered a direct sea route from Red Sea to India, aided by the South West monsoon. This route would sail to India directly across the Indian ocean. The earlier practice was to ply along the coast which would take a longer time. The direct route also allowed the traders to return the same year when the wind reverses direction during the north wast monsoon. In his honour, the south west monsoon was named Hippalus wind. The Periplus of the Erythraen Sea, a first century navigational text, describes this legacy.

Though the reference to Hippalus wind is documented, there are doubts whether Hippalus was a historical figure. It is possible that this legacy is only a foundation myth.

Source: The Birth of the Monsoon Winds: On the Existence and Understanding of Hippalus, and the “Discovery” of the Apogeous Trade Winds. Scott Vincent Hatcher

Picture Credit: Wikmedia Commons

El Nino in Spanish means “The Child.” This event refers to unusual warming of waters off the coast of Peru. It reduces the yield of fish and is known to increase the probability of a weak monsoon in the succeeding year. This event normally occurs around Christmas. The phrase El Nino refers to the “The Child” or the birth of Jesus.

Picture: The slopes of Matheran on a velvet green monsoon day, Maharashtra

Source: The Monsoons, P.K.Das

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

India’s most unusual coffee is Monsooned Malabar. It is coffee that has been exposed for three or four months to the moisture laden winds of the monsoon. The process swells and yellows the bean, reduces acidity and imparts a heavy, deep, syrupy sweetness to the cup. They also acquire mustiness. Monsooned Malabar has acquired a Geographical Identification (GI) tag.

Monsooning was originally devised by Indian exporters to produce a cup similiar to Old Brown Java coffees, which were similiarly transformed in taste by exposure to salt air and moisture in the hulls of wooden sailing ships on their voyage from Java to Europe.

Picture: Kedarnath on a clear monsoon morning

Source: Coffee, A guide to buying, brewing and enjoying. Kenneth Davids

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam