From Megh to Mausam: The Many Words of Rain

Every season carries its own charm. Sometimes it arrives as a blessing, sometimes as a burden. In India, the monsoon is more than just a season of rain — it is a spectacle of clouds and downpours, lush greenery, vibrant colors, stirring emotions, songs, rituals, and relationships.

And just as the rains color the land, they also enrich our languages. In Urdu especially, the monsoon season brings with it a fascinating gathering of words — drawn from Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian — each adding its own shade of meaning.

Megh میگھ, Megh میغ and Ghaim غیم: A Dance of Letters

Let us begin with clouds. Consider these three words: “Megh,” “Megh” and “Ghaim.” At first glance, they look almost the same. Just a little reshuffling of letters, yet all point to the same image — dark, heavy rain clouds.

• In Arabic, the word is “Ghaim.”
• In Persian, it transforms into “Megh.”
• In Sanskrit, we find  “Megh میگھ” — a word without which Indian poetry, music, and song would be incomplete.

Now, did Megh evolve into میغ , or did  میغ give birth to Megh میگھ? Linguists aren’t certain. Sanskrit, after all, belongs to the Indo-European family, while the ancient Iranian language Avesta is considered its close cousin. Somewhere in the tangle of these roots, the word shifted and changed.

The great Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir used this word   meG , in his masnavii ‘ Shikaar Nama’:

جوانوں کے بھی دانت بجنے لگے
تہ میغ خورشید پنہاں ہوا

Even the youth began to shiver,
Beneath the clouds, the sun lay hidden.”

The Story of “Baarish”

The everyday Urdu word for rain — Baarish — has a Persian ancestry. Yet, Persian also offers another word: “Barshkāl.”
The renowned scholar Lal Teek Chand Bahar (1687–1766), born in Delhi, compiled a landmark Persian dictionary called Bahār-e-Ajam. In it, he traces Barshkāl to Sanskrit, identifying it as a Persianized form of “Varsha-Kāl” (वर्षा-काल), meaning “the season of rain.”
Persian also gives us “Bārān” for rain, a word that appears frequently in Urdu poetry.

Clouds in Urdu: Abr and Sahab

When it comes to clouds, Urdu poets often choose between Abr and Sahaab. Even the children’s poet Ismail Merathi once wrote to teach young readers:

“Abr is bādal (cloud), and Sahaab is ghatā (dense clouds).”

Rain, Wine, and Wordplay

Rain has always stirred poets’ imaginations — not only as a natural spectacle but also as a metaphor. The season of rains and the culture of wine-drinking often intertwine in Urdu verse.

The poet Abdul Hameed Adam composed this witty couplet:

Baarish sharāb-e-‘arsh hai, yeh soch kar Adam
Baarish ke sab hurūf ko ulta ke pī gayā

(“Thinking that rain is celestial wine, Adam drank it by reversing the letters of the word Baarish.”)
Indeed, the letters of Baarish (ب+ ا+ ر+ ش) flipped around form the word Sharāb. A playful pun, turning rain itself into divine intoxication.

Mausam and Monsoon

Finally, the word Mausam. In everyday Urdu, it is indispensable. Of Arabic origin, it carries multiple meanings:
• era, term
• season, time of the year
• weather, climate

From this word also comes Monsoon. Experts believe it originated with Arab sailors, who used mausim to describe seasonal winds. Later, during the British Raj, the term entered English as monsoon — yet another example of how words travel across lands, carried like clouds by the winds.

A Season in Words

From Megh to Bārān, from Abr to Mausam, the language of rain shows us how words migrate, transform, and find new homes. Just as rains nourish the earth, these words have enriched Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit, and even English.

So the next time dark clouds gather and the first drops fall, remember — in every raindrop there is not just water, but centuries of poetry, history, and language.