ਪਤਝੜ

Patjhar (ਪਤਝੜ) is the Punjabi word for autumn: the season after the monsoon when the heat breaks, the days shorten and the trees shed their leaves. Wiktionary's Punjabi seasons table lists patjhar as autumn, and in Punjab it is the harvest stretch between the rains and the cold of winter.

What does patjhar mean in Punjabi?

Patjhar means autumn, and Rekhta's dictionary gives the word three linked senses: autumn itself, the falling of leaves, and a tree whose leaves have dropped and stands leafless. That is why the word carries a mood as well as a season, and poets reach for it: Rekhta illustrates patjhar with a verse by Ada Jafarey about flowering in the days of patjhar. In Punjab it is a short season after barsaat (ਬਰਸਾਤ), the monsoon, when the paddy harvest comes in and the mornings turn cool.

Where does the word patjhar come from?

Patjhar is a home-grown compound you can take apart: patta (ਪੱਤਾ), a leaf, joined with jhar (ਝੜ), from jharna, to fall or shed. Put together it says leaf-fall, which is exactly what the season does. Rekhta lists the word's origin as Hindi, the shared word of the plains, and gives its Urdu form as pat-jhar, written پَت جَھڑ. Unlike basant, which came down from Sanskrit, patjhar was built in everyday speech from plain words everyone already used.

What happens in Punjab during patjhar?

Patjhar is a working season in the fields. The crop that grew through the rains, above all jhona (ਝੋਨਾ, paddy), is cut and threshed, and the same fields are then readied and sown with kanak (ਕਣਕ, wheat) for the winter crop. The air clears after the humid monsoon months, the dust of the hot season is gone, and the light turns soft and golden. By the time the trees stand bare, sardi (ਸਰਦੀ, winter) is at the door.

How is patjhar different from sharad?

Learners also meet sharad for autumn in the traditional six-season list, where Preply gives sharad rutt as autumn, the harvest and cooling period. Sharad is the older, bookish name that came down from Sanskrit. Patjhar is the word Punjab actually speaks, in villages, songs and weather talk, because it names what everyone can see: the leaves falling.