Shilao Fan Na Yue

Śrávaṇ Month, identified by the book’s commentary as July–August, serves as a calendar marker for the rainy season. Its significance here lies in the tension between the verse’s seasonal language and the commentator’s warning that the timing should not be taken literally.

Calendar Identification

A footnote equates Śrávaṇ with July–August. It also notes that the rains begin a month earlier, complicating any straightforward reading of the month as the start of the monsoon.

Seasonal Reference in the Text

The passage associated with the month describes it as the first rainy month, when waters swell. The note says that this account should not be treated as a literal statement of seasonal timing: the rains are already underway before Śrávaṇ begins.

Textual and Interpretive Context

The footnote reports that the Bengal recension gives the same account and cites Gorresio’s translation, which likewise presents Śrávaṇ as the first month of the rainy season. The shared wording does not resolve the calendar discrepancy; instead, the commentary preserves both the poem’s seasonal description and the caution against reading it as exact chronology.