The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India (Vol. 1&2). William Crooke

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      Moon-worship.

       Table of Contents

The fate of Chandra or Soma, the Moon godling, is very similar. The name Soma, originally applied to the plant the juice of which was used as a religious intoxicant, came to be used in connection with the moon in the post-Vedic mythology. There are many legends to account for the waning of the moon and the spots on his surface, for the moon, like the sun, is always treated as a male godling. One of the legends current to explain the phases of the moon has been already referred to. According to another story the moon married the twenty-seven asterisms, the daughters of the Rishi Daksha, who is the hero of the curious tale of the sacrifice now located at Kankhal, a suburb of Hardwâr. Umâ or Pârvatî, the spouse of Siva, was also a daughter of Daksha, and when he, offended with his son-in-law Siva, did not invite him to the great sacrifice, Umâ became Satî, and in his rage Siva created Vîrabhadra, who killed the sage. Soma after marrying the asterisms devoted himself to one of them, Rohinî, which aroused the jealousy of the others. They complained to their father Daksha, who cursed the moon with childlessness and consumption. His wives, in pity, interceded for him, but the curse of the angry sage could not be wholly removed: all that was possible was to modify it so that it should be periodical, not permanent. In an earlier legend, of which there is a trace in the Rig Veda,27 the gods, by drinking up the nectar, caused the waning of the moon. Another curious explanation is current in Bombay. One evening Ganesa fell off his steed, the rat, and the moon could not help laughing at his misfortune. To punish him the angry god vowed that no one should ever see the moon again. The moon prayed for forgiveness, and Ganesa agreed that the moon should be disgraced only on his birthday, the Ganesa Chaturthî. On this night the wild hogs hide themselves that they may not see the moon, and the Kunbis hunt them down and kill them.28

      There are also many explanations to account for the spots in the moon. In Western lands the moon is inhabited by a man with a bundle of sticks on his back; but it is not clear of what offence this was the punishment. Dante says he is Cain; Chaucer says he was a thief, and gives him a thorn-bush to carry; Shakespeare gives him thorns to carry, but provides him with a dog as a companion. In Ireland children are taught that he picked faggots on a Sunday and is punished as a Sabbath-breaker. In India the creature in the moon is usually a hare, and hence the moon is called Sasadhara, “he that is marked like a hare.” According to one legend the moon became enamoured of Ahalyâ, the wife of the Rishi Gautama, and visited her in the absence of her husband. He returned, and finding the guilty pair together, cursed his wife, who was turned into a stone; then he threw his shoe at the moon, which left a black mark, and this remains to this day. The scene of this event has been localized at Gondar in the Karnâl District. By another variant of the legend it was Vrihaspati, the Guru or religious adviser of the gods, who found the moon with his wife. The holy man was just returning from his bath in the Ganges, and he threw his dripping loin-cloth at the moon, which produced the spots. In Upper India, again, little children are taught to call the moon Mâmû or “maternal uncle,” and the dark spots are said to represent an old woman who sits there working her spinning-wheel.

      The moon has one special function in connection with disease. One of his titles is Oshadhipati or “lord of the medicinal plants.” Hence comes the idea that roots and simples, and in particular those that are to be used for any magical or mystic purpose, should be collected by moonlight. Thus in Shakespeare Jessica says—

      “In such a night Medea gathered the enchanted herbs

      That did renew old Aeson.”

And Laertes speaks of the poison “collected from all simples that have virtue under the moon.”29 Hence the belief that the moon has a sympathetic influence over vegetation. Tusser30 advised the peasant—

      “Sow peason and beans, in the wane of the moon.

      Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon;

      That they with the planet may rest and arise,

      And flourish, with bearing most plentiful wise.”

      The same rule applies all over Northern India, and the phases of the moon exercise an important influence on all agricultural operations.

Based on the same principle is the custom of drinking the moon. Among Muhammadans in Oudh, “a silver basin being filled with water, is held in such a situation that the full moon may be reflected in it. The person to be benefited by the draught is required to look steadfastly on the moon in the basin, then shut his eyes and quaff the liquid at a draught. This remedy is advised by medical professors in nervous cases, and also for palpitation of the heart.”31 Somewhat similar customs prevail among Hindus in Northern India. At the full moon of the month Kuâr (September-October) people lay out food on the house-tops, СКАЧАТЬ