ARCHIVES AND RESEARCH CENTER FOR ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 
Ragas have been associated with seasons since time immemorial. Festivals celebrating harvests, solstices, regional deities etc. were always accompanied by song and dance, creating strong associations between music and season. The six primary seasons are Vasant (spring), Grishma (summer), Varsha (monsoon), Sharad (autumn), Hemant (Pre-winter), and Shishir (winter). Medieval musicological treatises, such as the ‘Sangita Ratnakara’ (c. thirteenth century) by Sarangadeva and the ‘Sangita Darpana’ (c.1625) by Damodara, identified six fundamental ragas as representative of the six seasons. While these treatises vary in their raga-season associations, the most popular system followed was: raga Hindol (Vasant), raga Dipak (Grishma), raga Megha (Varsha), raga Bhairav (Sharad), raga Shree (Hemanta ), and raga Malkos (Shishir).
