17 – The Moon and his Son

Hi Friends!

Today let us explore the story of the Moon (Chandra) and his descendants, the dynasty called the Chandra-Vansha, with few of the most interesting characters in the Indian mythological tales. Last time we covered the initial part of the story of the Dynasty of the Sun, or Surya-Vansha. Let us try and take even that story forward.

The origin of the Moon-god (“Chandra”) has various versions. Each has a place in the mythology, and tries to give a specific message. To avoid undue confusion we shall cover one version. If any of you want we can discuss the other versions (and what we can learn from them) in the comments section.

One of the Masters of Creation (“Prajapatis“) as well as the Seven Sages (“Saptarishis”) was the Sage Atri. Brahma, as his father, asked him to assist him in the task of creation. For that Atri decided to amass power and capabilities by contemplating about the ultimate reality, or the Supreme Soul: called variously as Param Brahman or Param Aatma. This was one of the most difficult of all penances, as it requires looking for a question that actually does not have a clear answer. Not surprisingly it is called the Unanswered/Unanswerable Task, or Anuttara Tapa. After the long Anuttara penance, when he could comprehend the beauty of the concept of Param-Aatma, his eyes were filled with tears of joy.

These bright and divine tears were fashioned by Brahma (with help of the personifications of the eight cardinal directions) into a magnificent young god. He was the son of Atri, hence called Atri-Putra. He was filled with divine joy that intoxicates the soul, and called Soma. He was the personification of the moon, hence called Chandra. He was also the god of vegetation, and medicinal herbs, sometimes referred to as Oushadhaiya. As he was the son of Sage Atri, one of the sons of Brahma, Chandra can be considered to be first-cousin-once-removed of the Adityas, who were sons of Sage Kashyapa, who in turn was the son of Sage Marichi, a brother and co-Saptarishi of Sage Atri. In the Indian scheme of relationships he would be called “uncle” by them, even if they were of similar age, or in this case similarly age-less.

Daksha Prajapati gave twenty-seven of his daughters in marriage to Chandra. But the Moon-god was moody, and fickle. You may want to read the tragedies that happened because of his unequal attention to his twenty seven wives, or nakshatras, and how it resulted in the moon having waxing and waning phases.

Chandra was, perhaps, the most handsome of all gods, and this did not go unnoticed. One of the women (“goddesses”?) who got infatuated by his charm was Tara, the Lady of the Stars. She was married to Sage Brihaspati, the spiritual advisor and guru of the devas. Sage Brihaspati was kept busy in helping the devas stave off the attacks of the Daityas and Danavas, who were guided by Sage Shukracharya, and his Sanjeevani Vidya. Due to this the beautiful Tara felt unappreciated, and she fell in love with the handsome Chandra, and started living with him. The imagery of the moon and the stars being close to each other is common in many cultures. In fact it is the symbol in many national flags and cultural signs.

But Lady Tara was married to the powerful Guru of Devas. So this situation was not acceptable. So with the support of all the gods, and Lord Brahma, she was sent back to live with her husband, Sage Brihaspati. Even Lord Shiva who always had a soft corner for Chandra, being also known as Chandra-Sekhara, opposed this romance between Chandra and Tara.

Some time after going to Brihaspati’s home, Lady Tara gave birth to a bright boy, both in terms of glow/beauty as well as intelligence. Brihaspati was very happy and invited all the devas to come and appreciate the beauty and intelligence of his son. Chandra also came. As soon as he saw the boy, he claimed him as his own son. Both “fathers” pointed out why they considered Budha as their son.

Brihaspati said, “I am the son of Sage Angiras, one of the Saptarishis. I am known for my intelligence and learned nature. So much so that I am the teacher and spiritual guide to the devas. This child has shown his intelligence and learning of the Vedas, even though he is just a newborn. He is son of my wife Tara. It is clear he is my son.”

Chandra, not to be left behind, proclaimed, “I am the son of Sage Atri, a Saptarishi and a Prajapati. I am know for my beauty. This child in his beauty and brightness resembles me. He is son of Tara who till recently stayed with me. It is clear he is my son.”

The gods were divided in their opinions at this. Some saw the intelligence and found merit in what Brihaspati said. Some saw the handsome child and found Chandra’s word more believable.

On this, the grandfather of both Chandra and Brihaspati, decided that the best way was to ask the mother. So he asked Tara to tell truthfully whose child was Budha. Tara shyly indicated that Budha was the child of Chandra. So Budha was also named as Saumya, or the son of Soma (another name of Chandra).

This is probably the only case in Indian mythology where the husband of the mother was not judged as the father.

In all other cases we find in the stories, the husband of the mother is considered the father of the child.

In some stories, to circumvent this discrepancy, Budha is considered the son of Chandra, with his favourite wife Rohini, one of the twenty-seven nakshatra (literally “constellation”) daughters of Daksha Prajapati. As son of Rohini, in some texts Budha is also called Rauhineya. May be this denotes that Rohini became his foster mother when Budha left Brihaspati’s home to go and stay with his father Chandra. Let’s leave it at that.

Let’s talk of the family of Vivaswan, especially through the son of Sun, Vaivaswata Manu. After the Pralaya, which he survived with the help of Matsya Avatar of Vishnu, it came upon Manu to re-establish civilisation, with the help of the Saptarishis.

For long Manu of the Seventh Manvantara, also known as Shraddhadeva Manu (being husband to Lady Shraddha, literally “devotion”) did not have any children. After a major yagna to pray for children. Ten children were born. They were:

• Sudyumna (in some cases also called Ila or Iladeva)
• Ikshvaaku
• Nabhaga
• Drishta
• Sharyati
• Narishyanta
• Pranshu
• Rishta
• Karusha
• Prishadhara

In some texts the eldest was born as a girl, called Ila, but on request of Manu, was turned into a boy, called Sudyumna. This seems quite hard to believe, as (from personal experience) I believe no father would want to change his daughter into a son. As fathers always have a soft-spot for loving daughters. This being a mythological tale may be anything is possible, even this.

After ruling well, and for a long time, Vaivaswata Manu decided to renounce his throne, to spend more time in contemplation of the Supreme Soul. The eldest son Sudyumna became king, and ruled ably supported by his brothers, chief amongst whom was Ikshavaku.

One day King Sudyumna went for a hunting expedition, riding his favourite horse. By mistake, he entered the Sharavana, or the Forest of Reeds. This was a forest that was cursed (blessed?) by Lord Shiva such that any male who entered it (other than Lord Shiva himself) would turn to females. We shall cover the reason for the same in some other post.

So, as soon as Sudyumna entered the forest he became a woman, going by his(her) birth-name, i.e. Ila. Even his horse became a mare. Ila was very beautiful. As expected, she was quite perplexed by this and kept roaming different forests, fearful of retuning to her (his) kingdom. In one of the forests she met Budha, the son of Chandra. Both were attracted to each other and married. A son was born of this, whom was named Pururava, strong and handsome.

In the meanwhile the brothers of Sudyumna were worried as their elder brother had not returned from his hunting expedition. Chief amongst them was Ikshavaku, who instead of just increasing his power in the absence of his brother, adhered to tenets of good behaviour and decided to find and get him back. When they went looking for him, they found a mare with all the decorations of their brother’s favourite horse. From this they realised, or were told by their teacher Sage Vashishtha (another of the Saptarishis), that their brother was now turned to a woman due to Lord Shiva’s curse (boon?).

The brothers, and Sage Vashishtha, prayed to Lord Shiva to reverse the curse. Lord Shiva satisfied by their prayers agreed to do so, but said he could not reverse the transition completely as it would be going against the promise he made to his consort, and wife. He said if Ikshavaku conducted an Ashwamedh Yagna, the transition could be reversed partially. After that Ila would remain a woman while the moon wanes (the phases when it reduces in size), and would be a man while the moon waxes (the phases when it increases in size).

So the dharma-adherent Ikshavaku conducted the difficult Ashwamedh Yagna, and Sudyumna came back to his brothers, along with Pururava, his (her) son with Budha. In some ways Ila (or Sudyumna) was his father as well as his mother.

The sons of Vaivaswata Manu divided the kingdom amongst themselves.

The eldest, Sudyumna ruled from the city of Pratisthana, literally meaning the “foundation”. His rule, though earlier doubted upon, proved to be extremely balanced, as the king understood each issue through both a male and a female perspective.

May be that’s the way to have a balanced rule: to examine a situation through multiple perspectives, so that combining them all the true picture is received, helping us to respond accordingly.

After him his son, King Pururavas – the grandson of Chandra, the Moon-god – became the king there, and his descendants are called the lunar dynasty, or Chandra-Vansha.

Sudyumna’s younger brother, Ikshavaku ruled from the city of Ayodhya, literally meaning the “unconquerable”. King Ikshavaku – the grandson of Surya, the Sun-god – became known as the first king of the solar dynasty, or Surya-Vansha, and under them Ayodhya remained unconquered for a long time.

So the two major dynasties were started by two siblings, who were mortal descendants of Manu, or Manu-shyas. They may claim their descent from gods, but their rule was in the mortal world (save one exception – that too temporarily – which we will cover later). In fact, the two most well-known epic poems of mythological tales talk about kings, princes, and heroes who claimed descent from these two dynasties.

Let us try and cover a few of these adventures in later posts, when the mythological tales cover the adventures of kings, princes and heroes, and not just gods, and their incarnations.