Medicine and the monsoon

Abstract

The classical Tamil poetry of the Sangam tradition blurs the boundaries between nature and self, between changing seasons and shifting interior states, and between emotional and physical health. “Monsoon rains,/coming with a stormy wind,/pouring down copiously/with roaring thunder/which kills snakes/in the mountains,/have you no mercy?” the poet Avvaiyar demands. The cycle of the south Asian monsoon—the intense heat of May followed by rains in June—structures many of these verses of love and longing.