Graha
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Chandra, also called Soma, is the Hindu god of the Moon, one of the Navagraha and ruler of Monday, associated with the mind, emotions and the nurturing, tranquil qualities of the night.
His many epithets include Soma, tying him to the Vedic ritual drink and its deity; Indu, "bright drop"; Nishakara, "the night-maker"; and Oshadhipati, "lord of herbs," reflecting the Moon's associations with growth and healing plants.
He is depicted as fair-skinned, two-armed, holding a club and a lotus, and riding a chariot drawn by ten (or, in some accounts, three) white horses. A crescent moon at his forehead marks his identity wherever he appears in wider Hindu iconography, most famously worn by Shiva.
He is said to have emerged, alongside the physician-god Dhanvantari and the elixir Amrita, from the churning of the primordial ocean of milk. The best known myth of the lunar phases turns on his marriage to the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha: favouring Rohini above her sisters, he drew Daksha's curse to waste away, a curse later softened so that he wanes for a fortnight and waxes again rather than disappearing for good.
Son of the sage Atri and Anasuya. He married the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha, personified as the lunar nakshatras, though tradition holds he favoured Rohini above the rest, provoking her sisters' complaint to their father and the curse that shapes his waxing and waning.
As Soma he is inseparable from the Vedic sacrificial drink of the same name, one of the oldest and most important elements of Vedic ritual. Astrologically Chandra governs the mind and emotions, and the lunar calendar he embodies structures the timing of festivals and rites across Hindu practice.
Chandra worship is folded into pan-Indian ritual through the lunar calendar rather than sustained through dedicated regional temple traditions comparable to Surya's or Shani's; his most visible living presence is in the fortnightly and monthly rites, such as Karva Chauth and Sankashti Chaturthi, that are timed by his phases.
Prayers for Chandra Ji (Moon) are in production, sourcing and review come before publication.
Thingalur Chandra Temple, also called Kailasanathar Temple, in Thingalur near Thanjavur, is the Chandra (Moon) Navagraha Sthalam, one of the nine temples of the…
