Virgo – Kanya

Virgo

Virgo (Greek: Parthenos) is the sixth astrological sign in the Zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin. Lying between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second-largest constellation in the sky (after Hydra) and the largest constellation in the zodiac.

It spans the 150–180th degree of the zodiac. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun transits this area on average between August 23 and September 22, and the Sun transits the constellation of Virgo from approximately September 16 to October 30.

It can be easily found through its brightest star, Spica, designated α Virginis (Latinised to Alpha Virginis, abbreviated Alpha Vir, α Vir), the brightest object in the constellation Virgo and one of the 20 brightest stars in the night sky. Spica retains this tradition as it is Latin for “ear of grain”, one of the major products of the Mesopotamian furrow. For this reason the constellation became associated with fertility.

The traditional name Spica derives from Latin spīca virginis “the virgin’s ear of [wheat] grain”. It was also anglicized as Virgin’s Spike. Johann Bayer cited the name Arista. Other traditional names are Azimech from Arabic al-simāk al-ʼaʽzal (‘the unarmed simāk’); Alarph (Arabic for ‘the grape-gatherer’ or ‘gleaner’), and Sumbalet (Sombalet, Sembalet and variants), from Arabic sunbulah (“ear of grain”).

Virgo has multiple different origins depending on which mythology is being studied. Most myths generally view Virgo as a virgin/maiden with heavy association with wheat. In the Babylonian MUL.APIN (c. 10th century BC), part of this constellation was known as “The Furrow”, representing the goddess Shala and her ear of grain.

In Egyptian mythology, the time when the constellation Virgo was in the sun was the beginning of the wheat harvest, thus connecting Virgo back to the wheat grain. Virgo has the equivalent sign in Indian astrology as the Kanya (which also means “maiden”), and has even been connected with the Virgin Mary.

In Chinese Jiǎo Xiù (meaning ‘Horn’), refers to an asterism consisting of Spica and Virginis. Consequently, the Chinese name for Spica is Jiǎo Xiù yī (‘The First Star of Horn’). In Hindu astronomy, Spica corresponds to the Nakshatra Chitrā.

Corvus

Corvus is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its name means “raven” in Latin. One of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, it depicts a raven, a bird associated with stories about the god Apollo, perched on the back of Hydra the water snake. As with more familiar Classical astronomy, it was placed sitting on the tail of the Serpent (Greek Hydra).

The four brightest stars, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Beta Corvi, form a distinctive quadrilateral in the night sky. With an apparent magnitude of 2.59, Gamma Corvi—also known as Gienah—is the brightest star in the constellation. The neighboring constellations are Crater, Hydra, and Virgo.

The Greek Corvus was borrowed from the mythical Babylonian Raven, MUL.UGA.MUSHEN, which was usually depicted perched on the tail of a serpent, in the Babylonian star catalogues dating from at least 1100 BCE. ). Babylonians associated the constellation with Adad, the god of rain and storm, because its stars would rise before the rainy season, in the fall, in the second millennium.

The Babylonian constellation was sacred to Adad, the god of rain and storm; in the second Millennium it would have risen just before the autumnal rainy season. John H. Rogers observed that Hydra signified Ningishzida, the god of the underworld in the Babylonian compendium MUL.APIN.

He proposed that Corvus and Crater (along with Hydra) were death symbols and marked the gate to the underworld. These two constellations, along with the eagle Aquila and the fish Piscis Austrinus, were introduced to the Greeks around 500 BCE; they marked the winter and summer solstices respectively.

Furthermore, Hydra had been a landmark as it had straddled the celestial equator in antiquity. Corvus and Crater also featured in the iconography of Mithraism, which is thought to have been of middle-eastern origin before spreading into Ancient Greece and Rome.

Corvus is associated with the myth of Apollo and his lover Coronis the Lapith. Coronis had been unfaithful to Apollo; when he learned this information from a pure white crow, he turned its feathers black in a fit of rage.

The constellation Corvus represents the raven (or crow), Apollo’s sacred bird in Greek mythology. According to the myth, the raven originally had white feathers. In one story, Apollo told the bird to watch over Coronis, one of his lovers, who was pregnant at the time.

Coronis gradually lost interest in Apollo and fell in love with a mortal man, Ischys. When the raven reported the affair to Apollo, the god was so enraged that the bird did nothing to stop it that he flung a curse on it, scorching the raven’s feathers. That, the legend goes, is why all ravens are black.

Apollo then sent his sister Artemis to kill Coronis. Before Coronis’ body was burned, the unborn child, Asclepius, was cut out of her womb and given to the centaur Chiron, who raised him. Asclepius grew up to be a famous healer and is represented by the constellation Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer.

Another legend associated with Corvus is that a crow stopped on his way to fetch water for Apollo, to eat figs. Instead of telling the truth to Apollo, he lied and said that a snake, Hydra, kept him from the water, while holding a snake in his talons as proof.

Apollo, realizing this was a lie, flung the crow (Corvus), cup (Crater), and snake (Hydra) into the sky. He further punished the wayward bird by ensuring it would forever be thirsty, both in real life and in the heavens, where the Cup is just out of reach.

Adad and Shala

The constellation of the Furrow is the precursor of our modern-day Virgo. The Babylonian figure is represented among the stars as the goddess Šala who holds the familiar ear of barley in her hands. As a seasonal symbol she represents the autumn seeding season when farmers use the seed plough to plant seed in the newly prepared fields.

Shala was an ancient Sumerian goddess of grain and the emotion of compassion. The symbols of grain and compassion combine to reflect the importance of agriculture in the mythology of Sumer, and the belief that an abundant harvest was an act of compassion from the deities.

The image of a barley sheaf actually appears in the cuneiform writing system as the sign known as Nidaba; it is occasionally used to write ‘grain’, but is more often used with a divine determinative to signify Nisaba, the ancient goddess of grain. Yet despite Nisaba’s importance in Mesopotamian culture, all available star-lists record the regent of the Furrowas Šala, a little known goddess who originated in the Hurrian pantheon.

Šala was best known as the wife of Adad, the fecund god of the storm, who was the regent of the nearby constellation of the Raven. Her barley stalk and Adad’s lightning bolt are sometimes depicted together on entitlement stones. Their proximity on the star-map and their marriage symbolise the newly seeded fields made fertile by rain and flood.

As Šala and Adad are both Hurrian deities, they are unlikely to have been assimilated into the Mesopotamian pantheon any earlier than the last centuries of the 3rd millennium when the Hurrian peoples first appear on the historical horizon. Their incorporation into Babylonian star-lore can be best understood as an attempt to integrate the Hurrians into the wider Mesopotamian world.

Traditions identify Shala as wife of the fertility god Dagon, or consort of the storm god Hadad’ also called Ishkur. Hadad was also called Pidar, Rapiu, Baal-Zephon, or often simply Baʿal (Lord), but this title was also used for other gods. Hadad is usually written with the logogram dIM – the same symbol used for the Hurrian god Teshub.

The bull was the symbolic animal of Hadad. He appeared bearded, often holding a club and thunderbolt while wearing a bull-horned headdress. Hadad was equated with the Greek god Zeus; the Roman god Jupiter, as Jupiter Dolichenus; the Indo-European Nasite Hittite storm-god Teshub; the Egyptian god Amun.

In ancient depictions, Shala carries a double-headed mace or scimitar embellished with lion heads. Sometimes she is depicted as being borne atop one or two lionesses. From very early times, she is associated with the constellation Virgo and vestiges of symbolism associated with her have persisted in representations of the constellation to current times, such as the ear of grain, even as the deity name changed from culture to culture.

Ninurta and Nintinugga

Ninurta, also known as Ninĝirsu, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was first worshipped in early Sumer. His major symbols were a perched bird and a plow.

He was regarded as the son of the chief god Enlil. In Lugal-e, his mother is identified as the goddess Ninmah, whom he renames Ninhursag, but, in Angim dimma, his mother is instead the goddess Ninlil.

In the earliest records, he is a god of agriculture and healing, who releases humans from sickness and the power of demons. In later times, as Mesopotamia grew more militarized, he became a warrior deity, though he retained many of his earlier agricultural attributes. Later, Ninurta became beloved by the Assyrians as a formidable warrior.

The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883–859 BC) built a massive temple for him at Kalhu, which became his most important cult center from then on. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, Ninurta’s statues were torn down and his temples abandoned because he had become too closely associated with the Assyrian regime, which many conquered peoples saw as tyrannical and oppressive.

In a poem sometimes referred to as the “Sumerian Georgica”, written sometime between 1700 and 1500 BC, Ninurta delivers detailed advice on agricultural matters to farmers, including how to plant, tend, and harvest crops, how to prepare fields for planting, and even how to drive birds away from the crops. The poem covers nearly every aspect of farm life throughout the course of the year.

Though the poem starts out seeming as though the advice is being given from a father to his son, at the end, it concludes with the words: “These are the instructions of Ninurta, son of Enlil. O Ninurta, trustworthy farmer of Enlil, your praise is good.” The “father” at the beginning of the poem is thereby revealed to be Ninurta himself.

Under the name Ninurta, his wife is usually the goddess Gula, but, as Ninĝirsu, his wife is the goddess Bau. Gula was the goddess of healing and medicine and she was sometimes alternately said to be the wife of the god Pabilsaĝ or the minor vegetation god Abu. Bau was worshipped “almost exclusively in Lagash” and was sometimes alternately identified as the wife of the god Zababa.

In artistic representations, Ninurta is shown as a warrior, carrying a bow and arrow and clutching Sharur, his magic talking mace. He sometimes has a set of wings, raised upright, ready to attack. In Babylonian art, he is often shown standing on the back of or riding a beast with the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion.

Ninurta remained closely associated with agricultural symbolism as late as the middle of the second millennium BC. On kudurrus from the Kassite Period (c. 1600 — c. 1155 BC), a plough is captioned as a symbol of Ninĝirsu. The plough also appears in Neo-Assyrian art, possibly as a symbol of Ninurta. A perched bird is also used as a symbol of Ninurta during the Neo-Assyrian Period.

One speculative hypothesis holds that the winged disc originally symbolized Ninurta during the ninth century BC, but was later transferred to Aššur and the sun-god Shamash. This idea is based on some early representations in which the god on the winged disc appears to have the tail of a bird. Most scholars have rejected this suggestion as unfounded.

Astronomers of the eighth and seventh centuries BC identified Ninurta (or Pabilsaĝ) with the constellation Sagittarius. Alternatively, others identified him with the star Sirius, which was known in Akkadian as šukūdu, meaning “arrow”.

The constellation of Canis Major, of which Sirius is the most visible star, was known as qaštu, meaning “bow”, after the bow and arrow Ninurta was believed to carry. In Babylonian times, Ninurta was associated with the planet Saturn.

Nintinugga was a Babylonian goddess of healing, the consort of Ninurta. She is identical with the goddess of Akkadian mythology, known as Bau or Baba though it would seem that the two were originally independent. She is later known as Gula and in medical incantations, Bēlet or Balāti, also as the Azugallatu the “great healer”, the same as her son Damu, a god of vegetation and rebirth in Sumerian mythology.

Damu, in Mesopotamian religion, Sumerian deity, city god of Girsu, east of Ur in the southern orchards region. Damu, son of Enki, was a vegetation god, especially of the vernal flowing of the sap of trees and plants. The cult of Damu influenced and later blended with the similar cult of Tammuz the Shepherd, a Sumerian deity.

His name means “The Child,” and his cult—apparently celebrated primarily by women—centred on the lamentation and search for Damu, who had lain under the bark of his nurse, the cedar tree, and had disappeared. The search finally ended when the god reappeared out of the river.

Damu is a healing deity credited both as asû “healer” and āšipu (“exorcist”) which says as much about the close link between the two professions as about the deity’s capabilities. Accordingly, Damu accompanies his mother Gula/Ninkarrak in incantations but is also credited as a healer in his own right.

Other names borne by this goddess are Nin-Karrak, Nin Ezen, Ga-tum-dug and Nm-din-dug. Her epithets are “great healer of the land” and “great healer of the black-headed ones”, a “herb grower”, “the lady who makes the broken up whole again”, and “creates life in the land”, making her a vegetation/fertility goddess endowed with regenerative power. She was the daughter of An and a wife of Ninurta. She had seven daughters, including Hegir-Nuna (Gangir).

The name Bau is more common in the oldest period and gives way to Gula after the First Babylonian dynasty. Since it is probable that Ninib has absorbed the cults of minor sun-deities, the two names may represent consorts of different gods. However this may be, the qualities of both are alike, and the two occur as synonymous designations of Ninib’s female consort. She was known as a patron deity of Lagash, where Gudea built her a temple.

After the Great Flood, she helped “breathe life” back into mankind. The designation well emphasizes the chief trait of Bau-Gula which is that of healer. She is often spoken of as “the great physician,” and accordingly plays a specially prominent role in incantations and incantation rituals intended to relieve those suffering from disease.

She is, however, also invoked to curse those who trample upon the rights of rulers or those who do wrong with poisonous potions. As in the case of Ninib, the cult of Bau-Gula was prominent in Shirgulla and in Nippur. While generally in close association with her consort, she was also invoked alone, giving her more dominance than most of the goddesses of Babylonia and Assyria.

In the Neo-Babylonian period, she also had an oneiric quality. She had sometimes violent nature as the “queen whose ‘tempest’, like a raging storm, makes heaven tremble, makes earth quake”. She was a source for blasphemous remarks where Gula and her dogs are mentioned in formulae of a curse.

She appears in a prominent position on the designs accompanying the Kudurrus boundary-stone monuments of Babylonia, being represented by a portrait, when other gods and goddesses are merely pictured by their shrines, by sacred animals or by weapons. In neo-Babylonian days her cult continues to occupy a prominent position, and Nebuchadrezzar II speaks of no less than three chapels or shrines within the sacred precincts of E-Zida in the city of Borsippa, besides a temple in her honour at Babylon.

Thor and Sif

The myth of the Slain Heroes is alluded to in many texts, but is never preserved in full. In this myth, Ninurta must fight a variety of opponents. Black and Green describe these opponents as “bizarre minor deities”; they include the six-headed Wild Ram, the Palm Tree King, and the seven-headed serpent.

Some of these foes are inanimate objects, such as the Magillum Boat, which carries the souls of the dead to the Underworld, and the strong copper, which represents a metal that was conceived as precious. This story of successive trials and victories may have been the source for the Greek legend of the Twelve Labors of Heracles.

Tacitus records a special affinity of the Germanic peoples for Hercules. In chapter 3 of his Germania, Tacitus states: “… they say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into battle, they sang of him first of all heroes. They have also those songs of theirs, by the recital of this barditus as they call it, they rouse their courage, while from the note they augur the result of the approaching conflict. For, as their line shouts, they inspire or feel alarm.”

Some have taken this as Tacitus equating the Germanic Þunraz with Hercules by way of interpretatio romana. In the Roman era Hercules’ Club amulets appear from the 2nd to 3rd century, distributed over the empire (including Roman Britain, c.f. Cool 1986), mostly made of gold, shaped like wooden clubs. A specimen found in Köln-Nippes bears the inscription “DEO HER[culi]”, confirming the association with Hercules.

In the 5th to 7th centuries, during the Migration Period, the amulet is theorized to have rapidly spread from the Elbe Germanic area across Europe. These Germanic “Donar’s Clubs” were made from deer antler, bone or wood, more rarely also from bronze or precious metals.

They are found exclusively in female graves, apparently worn either as a belt pendant, or as an ear pendant. The amulet type is replaced by the Viking Age Thor’s hammer pendants in the course of the Christianization of Scandinavia from the 8th to 9th century.

In Norse mythology, Sif is a goddess associated with earth. Sif is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Sif is the wife of the thunder god Thor and is known for her golden hair.

Scholars have proposed that Sif’s hair may represent fields of golden wheat, that she may be associated with fertility, family, wedlock and/or that she is connected to rowan, and that there may be an allusion to her role or possibly her name in the Old English poem Beowulf.

The name Sif is the singular form of the plural Old Norse word sifjar. Sifjar only appears in singular form when referring to the goddess as a proper noun. Sifjar is cognate to the Old English sibb and modern English sib (meaning “affinity, connection, by marriage”) and in other Germanic languages: Gothic (sibja), Old High German sippa, and modern German Sippe.

Sifjar appears not only in ancient poetry and records of law, but also in compounds (byggja sifjar means “to marry”). Using this etymology, scholar John Lindow gives the meanings “in-law-relationship”, scholar Andy Orchard provides “relation”, and scholar Rudolf Simek gives “relation by marriage”.

Grimm connects Eddic references to Sif’s golden hair (gold is referred to as Sifjar haddr; Sif’s hair) with the herb name haddr Sifjar (Polytrichum aureum). Grimm says that “expositors see in this the golden fruits of the Earth burnt up by fire and growing again, they liken Sif to Ceres”, and Grimm says that “with it agrees the fact that Old Slavic.

Siva is a gloss on Ceres dea frumenti” but cites etymological problems between the potential cognate. Grimm says that Thor’s mother was the earth, and not his wife, yet “we do find the simple Sif standing for earth.”

Grimm adds that he is inconclusive regarding Sif and that, “we ought to have fuller details about Sif, and these are wholly wanting in our mythology. Nowhere amongst us is the mystic relation of the seed-corn of Demeter, whose poignant grief for her daughter threatens to bring famine on mankind (Hymn to Cer. 305–306), nor anything like it, recorded.”

Scholar H. R. Ellis Davidson states that Sif may have been an ancient fertility goddess, agreeing with a link between her lustrous hair and fields of golden wheat. Regarding Sif, Thor, and fertility, Davidson says:

“The cult of Thor was linked up with men’s habitation and possessions, and with well-being of the family and community. This included the fruitfulness of the fields, and Thor, although pictured primarily as a storm god in the myths, was also concerned with the fertility and preservation of the seasonal round. In our own times, little stone axes from the distant past have been used as fertility symbols and placed by the farmer in the holes made by the drill to receive the first seed of spring.

Thor’s marriage with Sif of the golden hair, about which we hear little in the myths, seems to be a memory of the ancient symbol of divine marriage between sky god and earth goddess, when he comes to earth in the thunderstorm and the storm brings the rain which makes the fields fertile. In this way Thor, as well as Odin, may be seen to continue the cult of the sky god which was known in the Bronze Age.”

Furrow and Frond

The constellation of Virgo in Hipparchus corresponds to two Babylonian constellations: the “Furrow” in the eastern sector of Virgo and the “Frond of Erua” in the western sector. The Frond of Erua, also known as Sarpanit, was depicted as a goddess holding a palm-frond – a motif that still occasionally appears in much later depictions of Virgo.

The origins of Virgo can be traced back to the Babylonian constellation called the Furrow. It would actually be more accurate to regard the modernimage of the Virgin as a combination of two independent Babylonian constellations – the Furrow and the Frond, which occupy the eastern and western sectors of Virgo respectively.

Like the familiar Greek image, the Furrow was portrayed as a goddess bearing an oversize ear of barley. She symbolised the barley fields in early autumn when they are about to be seeded, and as may be expected her star was used in astrology to predict the success or failure of the coming harvest: ‘If the Furrow is dark: the barley will fall short of its predicted yield, a shortage of barley and straw will befall the land’.

The autumnal abundance of the earth is symbolised by the two-fold goddesses of the Frond and the Furrow, which respectively represent the two principle cultivated foodstuffs of Babylonia – dates and barley. Dates are especially valuable as they provide a rich source of nourishment that is easily preserved for future use.

The constellation of the Frond, which depicts, makes its annual appearance in the heavens as the dates start to ripen on the frond. The Frond, which stands immediately behind the Lion, was depicted as the goddess Erua with a branch or frond of the date palm – this attribute has, in fact, been retained in many images of Virgo, where she bears her barley stalk in one hand and a date palm frond in the other.

It is debated that when the ecliptic constellations were formulated into 12 zodiac signs the independent symbolism of the Furrow and Frond were combined into a single unified figure, which now represented two of the mainstays of the Babylonian diet – unleavened barley bread and dates.

It is notable that the Babylonian foods have been retained in her imagery, all the more so, as Greek agriculture was dominated by wheat and olives. The end result of combining these two Babylonian constellations into the figure of Virgo is that she is now one of the largest constellations in the sky. She is positioned rather uncomfortably, lying prone along the ecliptic with her head ungraciously set below Leo’s tail.

When Greek star-lore was transmitted to Arabia Virgo’s constellation image was modified again. Her barley-stalk, a meaningless symbol to the desert- dwelling Arabs, was omitted altogether and she suffered the further indignity of having one arm cut off above the elbow and stuck onto her thigh – such brutality being necessary to squeeze her oversize image onto the star-map.

Akitu

Akitu or Akitum (Sumerian: EZEN Á.KI.TUM, akiti-šekinku, Á.KI.TI.ŠE.GUR.KU, lit. “the barley-cutting”,[citation needed] akiti-šununum, lit. “barley-sowing”; Akkadian: akitu or rêš-šattim, “head of the year”) was a spring festival in ancient Mesopotamia.

The name is from the Sumerian for “barley”, originally marking two festivals celebrating the beginning of each of the two half-years of the Sumerian calendar, marking the sowing of barley in autumn and the cutting of barley in spring. In Babylonian religion it came to be dedicated to Marduk’s victory over Tiamat.

In the religion of ancient Babylon, Tiamat (Akkadian: DTI.AMAT or DTAM.TUM, Greek: Θαλάττη Thaláttē)[3] is a primordial goddess of the salt sea, mating with Abzû, the god of fresh water, to produce younger gods. She is the symbol of the chaos of primordial creation. She is referred to as a woman, and described as the glistening one. Some sources identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon.

It is suggested that there are two parts to the Tiamat mythos, the first in which Tiamat is a creator goddess, through a sacred marriage between salt and fresh water, peacefully creating the cosmos through successive generations. In the second Chaoskampf Tiamat is considered the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos.

In the Enûma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, she gives birth to the first generation of deities; her husband, Apsu, correctly assuming they are planning to kill him and usurp his throne, later makes war upon them and is killed.

Enraged, she, too, wars upon her husband’s murderers, taking on the form of a massive sea dragon. She is then slain by Enki’s son, the storm-god Marduk, but not before she had brought forth the monsters of the Mesopotamian pantheon, including the first dragons, whose bodies she filled with “poison instead of blood”. Marduk then forms the heavens and the Earth from her divided body.

Serpanit

In Babylonian religion, Serpanit is a mother goddess and the consort of the chief god, Marduk. Her name means “the shining one”, and she is sometimes associated with the planet Venus. By a play on words her name was interpreted as zēr-bānītu, or “creatress of seed”, and is thereby associated with the goddess Aruru, also known as Ninhursag, who, according to Babylonian myth, created mankind.

Her marriage with Marduk was celebrated annually at New Year in Babylon. She was worshipped via the rising moon, and was often depicted as being pregnant. She is She may be the same as Gamsu, Ishtar, and/or Bêlit.

Bêlit is a form of the Akkadian language word beltu or beltum (meaning “lady”, “mistress”) as used in noun compounds; it appears in titles of goddesses, such as bêlit-ili “lady of the gods”, an Akkadian title of Ninhursag. The word bêlit appears in Greek form as Beltis, considered to be the name of the wife of the god Bêl.

Belet-Seri (also spelled Beletseri, Belit-Sheri, Belit-Tseri) in Babylonian and Akkadian mythology is an underworld goddess. The recorder of the dead entering the underworld, she is known as the “Scribe of the Earth”. It is Belet-seri who keeps the records of human activities so she can advise the queen of the dead, Erishkigal, on their final judgement. Married to Amurru, the God of Nomads, she’s known as ‘Queen of the Desert.’

Gestinanna

Beginning in the Old Babylonian Period, Belet-Seri was identified with the goddess Gestinanna, the ancient Sumerian goddess of agriculture, fertility, and dream interpretation, the so-called “heavenly grape-vine”. She was viewed as a mother goddess and was closely associated with the interpretation of dreams. Like her brother Dumuzid, she was also a rural deity, associated with the countryside and open fields.

Gestinanna is the sister of Dumuzid, later known by the alternate form Tammuz, an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with shepherds, who was also the primary consort of the goddess Inanna (later known as Ishtar), and consort of Ningisida. She is also the daughter of Enki and Ninhursag.

She shelters her brother when he is being pursued by galla demons and mourns his death after the demons drag him to Kur. She eventually agrees to take his place in Kur for half the year, allowing him to return to Heaven to be with Inanna. The Sumerians believed that, while Geshtinanna was in Heaven and Dumuzid in Kur, the earth became dry and barren, thus causing the season of summer.

Ninhursag

Ninḫursaĝ, also known as Damgalnuna or Ninmah, was the ancient Sumerian mother goddess of the mountains, and one of the seven great deities of Sumer. As Ninmenna, according to a Babylonian investiture ritual, she placed the golden crown on the king in the Eanna temple. She is the tutelary deity to several Sumerian leaders.

She is principally a fertility goddess. Temple hymn sources identify her as the “true and great lady of heaven” (possibly in relation to her standing on the mountain) and kings of Sumer were “nourished by Ninhursag’s milk”.

The mother goddess had many epithets including shassuru or ‘womb goddess’, tabsut ili ‘midwife of the gods’, ‘mother of all children’ and ‘mother of the gods’. In this role she is identified with Ki in the Enuma Elish. She had shrines in both Eridu and Kish.

She had many names including Ninmah (“Great Queen”); Nintu (“Lady of Birth”); Mamma or Mami (mother); Aruru, Belet-Ili (lady of the gods, Akkadian). Possibly included among the original mother goddesses was Damgalnuna (great wife of the prince) or Damkina (true wife), the consort of the god Enki.

Nin-hursag means “lady of the sacred mountain” (from Sumerian NIN “lady” and ḪAR.SAG “sacred mountain, foothill”. According to legend, her name was changed from Ninmah to Ninhursag by her son Ninurta in order to commemorate his creation of the mountains.

In the legend of Enki and Ninhursag, Ninhursag bore a daughter to Enki called Ninsar (“Lady Greenery”). Through Enki, Ninsar bore a daughter Ninkurra (“Lady of the Pasture”). Ninkurra, in turn, bore Enki a daughter named Uttu. Enki then pursued Uttu, who was upset because he didn’t care for her.

Uttu, on her ancestress Ninhursag’s advice buried Enki’s seed in the earth, whereupon eight plants (the very first) sprung up. Enki, seeing the plants, ate them, and became ill in eight organs of his body. Ninhursag cured him, taking the plants into her body and giving birth to eight deities: Abu, Nintulla (Nintul), Ninsutu, Ninkasi, Nanshe, Azimua, Ninti, and Enshag (Enshagag).

In the text ‘Creator of the Hoe’, she completed the birth of mankind after the heads had been uncovered by Enki’s hoe. In creation texts, Ninmah (another name for Ninhursag) acts as a midwife whilst the mother goddess Nammu makes different kinds of human individuals from lumps of clay at a feast given by Enki to celebrate the creation of humankind.

Sometimes her hair is depicted in an omega shape and at times she wears a horned head-dress and tiered skirt, often with bow cases at her shoulders. Frequently she carries a mace or baton surmounted by an omega motif or a derivation, sometimes accompanied by a lion cub on a leash.

The omega symbol is associated with the Egyptian cow goddess Hathor, and may represent a stylized womb. The symbol appears on very early imagery from Ancient Egypt. Hathor is at times depicted on a mountain, so it may be that the two goddesses are connected.

Demeter and Persephone

Early Greek astronomy associated the Babylonian constellation with their goddess of wheat and agriculture, Demeter, mother of Persephone, the goddess of the harvest. The Romans associated it with their goddess Ceres, mother of Proserpina. Demeter’s emblem is the poppy, a bright red flower that grows among the barley.

In epic poetry and Hesiod’s Theogony, Demeter is the Corn-Mother, the goddess of cereals who provides grain for bread and blesses its harvesters. This was her main function at Eleusis, and became panhellenic. In Cyprus, “grain-harvesting” was damatrizein. The main theme in the Eleusinian mysteries was the reunion of Persephone with her mother Demeter, when new crops were reunited with the old seed, a form of eternity.

According to the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates, Demeter’s greatest gifts to humankind were agriculture, particularly of cereals, and the Mysteries which give the initiate higher hopes in this life and the afterlife. These two gifts were intimately connected in Demeter’s myths and mystery cults. In Hesiod, prayers to Zeus-Chthonios (chthonic Zeus) and Demeter help the crops grow full and strong.

Another figure who is associated with the constellation Virgo was the spring goddess Persephone, also called Kore (“the maiden”), the daughter of Zeus and Demeter who had married Hades and resided in the Underworld during summer. In Roman mythology, she is called Proserpina.

Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable, majestic queen of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. She becomes the queen of the underworld through her abduction by and subsequent marriage to Hades, the god of the underworld.

The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation. Similar myths appear in the Orient, in the cults of male gods like Attis, Adonis, and Osiris, and in Minoan Crete.

In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades.

In the myth Pluto abducts Persephone to be his wife and the queen of his realm (this is the myth which explains their marriage). Pluto (Ploutōn) was a name for the ruler of the underworld; the god was also known as Hades, a name for the underworld itself.

The name Pluton was conflated with that of Ploutos (Ploutos, “wealth”), a god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground, and because Pluto as a chthonic god ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds necessary for a bountiful harvest. Plouton is lord of the dead, but as Persephone’s husband he has serious claims to the powers of fertility.

Both Homer and Hesiod, writing c. 700 BC, described the agricultural hero Iasion as a consort of Demeter. According to Hesiod, they had intercourse in a ploughed furrow. Demeter subsequently gave birth to two sons, Philomelus and Ploutos (Ploutos, lit. “wealth”), the Greek god of wealth.

This union seems to be a reference to a hieros gamos (ritual copulation) to ensure the earth’s fertility. This ritual copulation appears in Minoan Crete, in many Near Eastern agricultural societies, and also in the Anthesteria.

In the theology of the Eleusinian Mysteries Ploutos is regarded as the “Divine Child.” Among the Eleusinian figures painted on Greek ceramics, regardless of whether he is depicted as child or youthful ephebe, a Greek term for a male adolescent, or for a social status reserved for that age, in Antiquity, Plutus can be identified as the one bearing the cornucopia, the horn of plenty.

Philomelus was a minor Greek demi-god, patron of Husbandry, Tillage/Ploughing and Agriculture, the son of Demeter and Iasion, and the brother of Plutus. Plutus was very wealthy, but would share none of his riches to his brother.

Out of necessity, Philomenus bought two oxen, invented the wagon or plough, and supported himself by ploughing his fields and cultivating crops. His mother, admiring him for this, put him in the heavens as the constellation Boötes, his wagon or plough being the constellation Ursa Major.

The original cult of Ploutos (or Pluto) in Eleusis was similar with the Minoan cult of the “divine child”, who died in order to be reborn. The child was abandoned by his mother and then it was brought up by the powers of nature. Similar myths appear in the cults of Hyakinthos (Amyklai), Erichthonios (Athens), and later in the cult of Dionysos.

The Greek version of the abduction myth is related to grain – important and rare in the Greek environment – and the return (ascent) of Persephone was celebrated at the autumn sowing. Pluto (Ploutos) represents the wealth of the grain that was stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (pithoi), during summer months. Similar subterranean pithoi were used in ancient times for burials and Pluto is fused with Hades, the King of the realm of the dead.

During summer months, the Greek grain-Maiden (Kore) is lying in the grain of the underground silos in the realm of Hades, and she is fused with Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld. At the beginning of the autumn, when the seeds of the old crop are laid on the fields, she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter, for at that time the old crop and the new meet each other. For the initiated, this union was the symbol of the eternity of human life that flows from the generations which spring from each other.

Parthenos

Another association is with the myth of Parthenos (meaning virgin in Greek), which explains how the actual constellation Virgo came to be. In the Poeticon Astronomicon by Hyginus (1st century BC), Parthenos is the daughter of Apollo and Chrysothemis, who died a maiden and was placed among the stars as the constellation.

Diodorus Siculus has an alternative account, according to which Parthenos was the daughter of Staphylus and Chrysothemis, sister of Rhoeo and Molpadia (Hemithea). After a suicide attempt she and Hemithea were carried by Apollo to Chersonesus, where she became a local goddess. Strabo also mentions a goddess named Parthenos worshipped throughout Chersonesus.

Astraea

The symbol of the maiden is based on Iustitia or Astraea ( “star-maiden” or “starry night”), a daughter of Astraeus and Eos holding the scales of justice in her hand (that now are separated as the constellation Libra). She is the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity and precision. She is closely associated with the Greek goddess of justice, Dike (daughter of Zeus and Themis).

Astraea, the celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Golden Age, one of the old Greek religion’s five deteriorating Ages of Man. According to Ovid, Astraea was the last immortal to abandon Earth at the end of the Silver Age, when the gods fled to Olympus – hence the sign’s association with Earth. According to legend, Astraea will one day come back to Earth, bringing with her the return of the utopian Golden Age of which she was the ambassador.

Fleeing from the new wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become the constellation Virgo. The nearby constellation Libra reflected her symbolic association with Dike, who in Latin culture as Justitia is said to preside over the constellation. In the Tarot, the 8th card, Justice, with a figure of Justitia, can thus be considered related to the figure of Astraea on historical iconographic grounds.

Erigone

Another Greek myth from later, Classical times, identifies Virgo as Erigone, the daughter of Icarius of Athens. Icarius, who had been favored by Dionysus and was killed by his shepherds while they were intoxicated after which Erigone hanged herself in grief; in versions of this myth, Dionysus is said to have placed the father and daughter in the stars as Boötes and Virgo respectively.

Kanya

The month of Kanyā, called Purattasi in the Tamil Hindu calendar, is one of the twelve months in the Indian solar calendar. Kanya corresponds to the zodiacal sign of Virgo, and overlaps with about the second half of September and about the first half of October in the Gregorian calendar.

In Vedic texts, the Kanya month is called Nabhasya, but in these ancient texts it has no zodiacal associations. In Vedic Jyotisha or Jyotishya (from Sanskrit jyotiṣa, from jyóti- “light, heavenly body”), the traditional Hindu system of astrology, also known as Hindu astrology, and more recently Vedic astrology, Bhadra begins with the Sun’s entry into Virgo, and is usually the sixth month of the year.

Bhadro is the fifth month in the Bengali calendar. It is named after the star Purbobhadropod. Bhadro marks the beginning of Autumn. According to the modified calendar developed by the Bangla Academy, the month of Bhadro has 31 days. Bhadro spans from mid August to mid September in the Gregorian Calendar.

In India’s national civil calendar (Shaka calendar), Bhadra is the sixth month of the year, beginning on 23 August and ending on 22 September. Bhadra, also Bhadrapada, Bhaado or Bhadraba, is a month of the Hindu calendar that corresponds to August/September in the Gregorian calendar. In lunar religious calendars, Bhadra begins on the new moon in August/September and is the sixth month of the year.

The festival of Ganesha Chaturthi, celebrating the birthday of Ganesha, is observed from the 4-10 Bhadrapada in the bright fortnight and is the main holiday of the year in Maharashtra. Per Shaka calendar, the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada is reserved for the veneration of the dead. This period is known as Pitru Paksha.

In the Vaishnava calendar, Hrishikesh governs this month. The Goddess Radha was born on the eighth day of this month. Vaishnavas and some Shivites fast during the whole month of “Purattasi” in Tamil Nadu and visit Vaishnav temples on Saturday.

ashvin

The solar month of Kanya overlaps with its lunar month Ashvin, also Ashwin, Ashwan or Aswayuja, in Hindu lunisolar calendars. It marks the start of harvests and festival season across the Indian subcontinent. It is preceded by the solar month of Siṃha, and followed by the solar month of Tulā.

Simha corresponds to the zodiacal sign of Leo, and overlaps with about the second half of August and about the first half of September while Tulā corresponds to the zodiacal sign of Libra, and overlaps with about the second half of October and about the first half of November in the Gregorian calendar.

In Vedic texts, the Simha month is called Nabhas and the Tula month is called Issa, but in these ancient texts they dont have any zodiacal associations. The solar month of Simha overlaps with its lunar month Bhadrapada while the solar month of Tula overlaps with its lunar month Kartik, in Hindu lunisolar calendars.

Ashwin overlaps September and October of the Gregorian calendar and is the month preceding Diwali or Tihar the festival of lights. In lunar religious calendars, Ashwin begins on the new moon after the autumn equinox.

Ashvin is the seventh month of the lunisolar Hindu calendar, the Vikram Samvat, which is the official solar calendar of modern-day Nepal and India. It is the sixth month in the solar Bengali calendar and seventh in the lunar Indian national calendar of the Deccan Plateau.

It falls in the season of Shôrot (Hindi Sharad) or Autumn. In Vedic Jyotish, Ashwin begins with the Sun’s enter in Virgo. Ashwin is known as aipasi in Tamil and begins when the sun enters Libra in October.

Ashvini is the first star that appears in the evening sky. In the Indian astrology it is the head of Aries, or the first of the 27 Nakshatra. Ashvin also stands for the divine twins, the Ashvins, the gods of vision, Ayurvedic medicine, the glow of sunrise and sunset, and averting misfortune and sickness in Hindu mythology. Asawin is the Thai variant of Ashvin and stands for the warrior. The term is often translated into English as “knight”.

The Hindu Lunisolar month Kartika or Karthikai, a month in Hindu calendar that typically overlaps with mid-October and mid-November of the Gregorian calendar.

In the Bengali, Maithili, and Nepali calendar, Kartika is the 7th month, in the Tamil calendar it is the 8th month. The name of the month is derived from the name of the star Krittika, sometimes known as Kārtikā. It marks the start of the dry season.

Krittika corresponds to the open star cluster called Pleiades in western astronomy; it is one of the clusters which makes up the constellation Taurus. In Indian astronomy and Jyotiṣa (Hindu astrology) the name literally translates to “the cutters”. It is also the name of its goddess-personification, who is a daughter of Daksha and Panchajani, and thus a half-sister to Khyati. Spouse of Kṛttikā is Chandra (lit. “shining” or “moon”).

Chandra is a lunar deity and is also one of the nine planets (Navagraha) in Hinduism. She is described as young and beautiful, two-armed and carrying a club and a lotus. In Hindu mythology, Chandra is the father of Budha (planet Mercury). Chandra, who is also known as Soma and Indu, is the basis of Somvaar, which is Hindi, and Induvaasaram, which is Sanskrit, for Monday in the Hindu calendar.

Soma connotes the Moon as well as a medicinal deity in post-Vedic Hindu mythology. In Puranic mythology, Soma is a moon deity, but the name is sometimes also used to refer to Vishnu, Shiva (as Somanatha), Yama and Kubera. The Soma Mandala in the Rigveda mentions Soma as a ritual drink as being of importance among the early Indo-Iranians.

Diwali

Diwali, Divali, or Deepawali is the Hindu festival of lights, typically lasting five days and celebrated during the Hindu Lunisolar month Kartika.

Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and Newar Buddhists, although for each faith it marks different historical events and stories, but nonetheless the festival represents the same symbolic victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil.

The festival is widely associated with Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity, but regional traditions connect it to Sita and Rama, Vishnu, Krishna, Durga, Kali, Dhanvantari, or Vishvakarman.

In the lead-up to Diwali, celebrants will prepare by cleaning, renovating, and decorating their homes and workplaces. During the climax, revellers adorn themselves in their finest clothes, illuminate the interior and exterior of their homes with diyas (oil lamps or candles), offer puja (worship) to Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and wealth, light fireworks, and partake in family feasts, where mithai (sweets) and gifts are shared.

Dhanteras, derived from Dhan meaning wealth and teras meaning thirteenth, marks the thirteenth lunar day of Krishna Paksha (dark fortnight) in the Vikram Samvat Hindu calendar month of Kartik and is the first day that marks the festival of Diwali in India.

Dhanteras is a symbol of annual renewal, cleansing and an auspicious beginning for the next year. The term “Dhan” for this day also alludes to the Ayurvedic icon Dhanvantari, the god of health and healing, who is believed to have emerged from the “churning of cosmic ocean” on the same day as Lakshmi.

Dhanvantari, the god of health, who is also worshipped on the occasion of Dhanteras, is considered the God of Ayurveda who imparted the wisdom of Ayurveda for the betterment of mankind, and to help rid it of the suffering of disease. On this day, many Hindus clean their homes and business premises. The day also marks a major shopping day to purchase new utensils, home equipment, jewellery, firecrackers, and other items.

Vasubaras marks the beginning of the celebration of Diwali festival. On Vasubaras, the Cow and her calf are worshipped. The Cow holds a very sacred place in the Vedic Mythology. Referred to as “Gau Mata”, she is worshipped and nurtured with the utmost respect. “Gau Mata” and her Prasad “Pancha Gavya”, or “Panchamrut”, are frequently used in all Hindu celebrations. Vasubaras is followed by Dhanteras.

They install diyas, small earthen oil-filled lamps that they light up for the next five days, near Lakshmi and Ganesha iconography. On the evening of Dhanteras, families offer prayers (puja) to Lakshmi and Ganesha, and lay offerings of puffed rice, candy toys, rice cakes and batashas (hollow sugar cakes).

Women and children decorate doorways within homes and offices with rangoli, colourful designs made from rice flour, flower petals and coloured sand, while the boys and men decorate the roofs and walls of family homes, markets, and temples.

On the night of Dhanteras, diyas (lamps) are ritually kept burning all through the nights in honor of Lakshmi and Dhanvantari. On this night, the lights are set out every night both in the sky lamps and as offerings at the base of a Tulsi plant and also in the form of diyas, which are placed in front of the doorways of homes.

This light is an offering to Yama, the Host of Death, to avert untimely death during the time of the Diwali festival. This day is a celebration aimed at increasing wealth and prosperity. Dhanteras engages themes of cleansing, renewal, and the securing of auspiciousness in the form of Lakshmi.

Lakshmi

Lakshmi, also spelled Laksmi, is the Hindu goddess of wealth, love, prosperity (both material and spiritual), fortune, and the embodiment of beauty. She is the wife and active energy of Vishnu, one of the principal deities of Hinduism and the Supreme Being in the Vaishnavism Tradition. With Parvati and Saraswati, she forms Tridevi, the holy trinity.

Lakshmi is also an important deity in Jainism and found in Jain temples. Lakshmi has also been a goddess of abundance and fortune for Buddhists, and was represented on the oldest surviving stupas and cave temples of Buddhism. In Buddhist sects of Tibet, Nepal and Southeast Asia, goddess Vasudhara mirrors the characteristics and attributes of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi with minor iconographic differences.

In Hindu religion, she was born from the churning of the primordial ocean (Samudra manthan) and she chose Vishnu as her eternal consort.[8] When Vishnu descended on the Earth as the avatars Rama and Krishna, Lakshmi descended as his respective consort as Sita, Radha and Rukmini the first and chief consort of Lord Krishna.

Krishna, the prince of Dwaraka, heroically kidnapped Rukmini and eloped with her to prevent an unwanted marriage at her request and saved her from evil Shishupala (described in the Bhagavata Purana). According to traditional accounts she is believed to have been born on Vaishakha 11 (Vaishakh Ekadashi).

Although born of an earthly king, her position as an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi is described throughout Puranic literature

Her four hands represent the four goals of human life considered proper in Hindu way of life – dharma, kama, artha, and moksha.

Ganesha

The festival of Ganesha Chaturthi, celebrating the birthday of Ganesha, is observed from the 4-10 Bhadrapada in the bright fortnight and is the main holiday of the year in Maharashtra. Per Shaka calendar, the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada is reserved for the veneration of the dead. This period is known as Pitru Paksha.

Ganesh Chaturthi, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi (Vināyaka Chaturthī), is a Hindu festival celebrating the arrival of Ganesha to earth from ‘Kailash Parvat’ with his mother goddess Parvati/Gauri. The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha clay idols privately in homes, or publicly on elaborate pandals (temporary stages). Observations include chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts such as, prayers and vrata (fasting).

In Goa, Ganesh Chaturthi is known as Chavath in Konkani and Parab or Parva (“auspicious celebration”); it begins on the third day of the lunar month of Bhadrapada. On this day Parvati and Shiva are worshiped by women, who fast. 

According to the Vaishnava, one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism, Hrishikesh, another name of Hindu god Vishnu, governs this month. Vaishnavas and some Shivites fast during the whole month of “Purattasi” in Tamil Nadu and visit Vaishnav temples on Saturday.

Radha

The Goddess Radha, also called Radhika, Radharani, Radhe, Shyama, and Priya, was born on the eighth day of this month. The Sanskrit term Rādhā means “prosperity, success”. It is a common word and name found in various contexts in the ancient and medieval texts of India.

Radha is a goddess popular in Hinduism, especially in the Vaishnavism tradition. Radha is worshipped in some regions of India, particularly by Gaudiya Vaishnavas, Vaishnavas in West Bengal, Bangladesh Manipur, and Odisha. Elsewhere, she is revered in the Nimbarka Sampradaya and movements linked to Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

She was born in Rawal and then moved to Barsana. She is said to be the head of the milkmaids as Pradhan Gopika (chief amongst all gopis) (also called the gopis or Braj Gopikas) who resided in Braj Dham. She is also called Vrindavaneshwari (Queen of the Sri Vrindavan Dham). She appeared as queen of milkmaids and queen of Vrindavan-Barsana.

Radha is an important goddess in the Vaishnavism traditions of Hinduism. Her traits, manifestations, descriptions, and roles vary by region. Since the earliest times, she has been associated with the cowherd Krishna, who is the speaker of the Bhagavad Gita. She is Shri Krishna’s first chief and eternal consort.

She is the personification of pure devotional service unto Sri Krishna (Bhakti Devi). She is thought of as the supreme Goddess in her own right and celebrated on the festive day of Radhastami. She and her consort Krishna are collectively known as Radha Krishna, the combined form of feminine as well as the masculine realities of God. Lord Krishna enacts leelas with Her.

She taught selfless love and surrender to Bhagavan Shri Krishna. She is the supreme goddess in Vaishnavism. Rasik sants have mentioned her as a descension of the Supreme Goddess, Source of the Infinite Lakshmi and the original form of Yogamaya and hladini Shakti (Power of Divine Love) which is main power of the Godhead Shree Krishna.

Shrimati Radharani is considered by some as a metaphor for the human spirit (aatma), her love and longing for Prabhu Shree Krishna is theologically viewed as symbolic of the human quest for spiritual growth and union with the divine. She has inspired numerous literary works, and her Rasa lila dance with Krishna has inspired many types of performance arts. She is said to be incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi and Krishna is her husband Lord Vishnu’s incarnation as per some texts.

Sita

Sita is the central female character and one of the central figures in the Hindu epic, Ramayana and its other versions. She is described as the daughter of the earth goddess, Bhūmi, the Hindu avatar of goddess Prithvi representing Mother Earth, and the adopted daughter of King Janaka of Videha and his wife, Queen Sunaina. She has a younger sister, Urmila, and the female cousins Mandavi and Shrutakirti. Sita is known for her dedication, self-sacrifice, courage and purity.

Sita, in her youth, chooses Rama, the prince of Ayodhya as her husband in a swayamvara — bride choosing the best from a crowd of suitors after a contest, where Rama proves his heroism and valor and martial power and “defeats” the other seekers for Seeta’s hand in marriage. After the swayamvara, she accompanies her husband to his kingdom, but later chooses to accompany her husband, along with her brother-in-law Lakshmana, in his exile.

While in exile, the trio settles in the Dandaka forest from where she is abducted by Ravana, the Rakshasa king of Lanka. She is imprisoned in Ashoka Vatika in Lanka until she is rescued by Rama, who slays her captor. After the war, in some versions of the epic, Rama asks Sita to undergo Agni Pariksha (an ordeal of fire) by which she proves her purity before she is accepted by Rama, which for the first time makes his brother Lakshmana get angry at him

Bhūmi is the daughter of Prajapati (Prajāpati-Rajjan or Rajanya, “lord of creation and protector”) and the consort of the boar god Varaha, an avatar of Vishnu. In classical and medieval era literature, Prajapati is equated to the metaphysical concept called Brahman as Prajapati-Brahman (Svayambhu Brahman), or alternatively Brahman is described as one who existed before Prajapati.

The “preserver” in the Hindu triad (Trimurti), Vishnu is revered as the supreme being In Vaishnavism as identical to the metaphysical concept of Brahman (Atman, the self, or unchanging ultimate reality), and is notable for adopting various incarnations (avatars such as Rama and Krishna) to preserve and protect dharmic principles whenever the world is threatened with evil, chaos, and destructive forces.

She is worshipped in patala and is depicted as seated on a platform which rests on the back of four elephants, representing the four directions of the world. She is usually depicted with four arms, respectively holding a pomegranate, a water vessel, a bowl containing healing herbs, and another bowl containing vegetables.

She is also sometimes depicted with two hands, the right hand holding a blue lotus known as Kumuda or Utpala, the night lotus, while the left hand may be in the Abhaya Mudra, the fearlessness or the Lolahasta Mudra, which is an aesthetic pose meant to mimic the tail of a horse.

The Pre-Autumn Equinox Period