Chandrayaan 3 & The Moon God

  

August 23, 2023. It is 4 minutes past 6 pm. This was a proud moment for the Indiana all over the world. India's Chandrayaan 3's Lander Vikram successfully landed on the South Pole of the Moon. India became first country to reach on the extreme southern part of the Moon. Eight million people watched the live telecast on the official Youtube channel of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). This is also a world record. Most numbers of people watched live stream on Youtube. Let's talk about mythology on the moon.

Real image of Moon captured from
 Vikram Lander of Chandrayaan 3.

Like the sun, the moon has been given the status of deity all over the world since ancient times. In most of the countries Sun is considered as male but in different countries Moon is recognized as male and female in some countries. For example, the moon is referred to as the goddess Selene in Greek mythology or as the goddess Luna in Roman mythology. Again the Greek goddess Artemis or the Roman goddess Diana was the goddess of the moon. Aulix in the Mayan civilization in Mexico, Mama Quila in the Inca civilization is the moon goddess. Moon god 'Mani' in Germanic Norse mythology, Khonsu is male in Egypt.

However, in traditional Hinduism in the Indian subcontinent, Moon is male. His other name is Som.

Chandra Dev or Moon God

Trideva were born to Atri, son of Prajapati Brahma and his wife Anusua. Lord Vishnu in the form of sage Dattatreya, Mahadeva in the form of sage Durvasha and Brahma himself in the form of Chandradeva.

Once Chandradev organized a yajna Devguru Brihaspati presided over the sacrifice. By the end of the yajna his beauty had increased to such an extent that Tara, wife of Jupiter, fell in love with Chandra and refused to leave Chandra and return to her husband. Later the problem was resolved by the intervention of the god Indra. But by then, Tara was going to be the mother of Chandra Dev's child. Later in due course they had a son, whose name is Budh (planet Mercury). The descendants of Ikshaku, the son of Surya's son Vaivaswat Muni, were known as Suryavansh or Solar Dynasty. Chandra's son Budha was married to Ila, sister of Ikshakura, and they had a son named Pururaba. Pururaba's descendants came to be known as Chandravansa (Lunar Dynasty). 

Another son of Brahma is Daksha. Chandra was married to his 27 daughters. But among them he loved Rohini the most. The rest of the wives complained to Daksha about this. When Daksha warned Chandra about this, Chandra promised that henceforth he would give equal priority to all. But after a few days, he again started giving the most rights to Rohini. When Daksha came to know about this, he angrily cursed Chandra to suffer from decay. Chandra became weak due to the curse of Daksha. Chandra dev started Mahadev's penance at Prayag Tirtha. Satisfied with his penance, Mahadev blessed, the moon will not be freed from Daksha's curse, but for 15 days it will remain in decay, in the next 15 days it will regain its form. From then on, from Krishna Paksha to Amavasya, Chandradeva continues to decline, and in the next 15 days he regains his form.

The place where Chandradeva, or Soma, performed Mahadeva's penance, there is a temple of Mahadeva named Somnath temple.

Somnath Temple, Gujrat, India