The Moon has been a thing of wonder and fascination for the ancient people. Almost all the civilizations in the ancient era like the Babylonian, the Mayan, the Egypt, the Egyptian, as well as the Indus Valley civilization had stories about the Moon. It had different names in different cultures and civilizations. The sum cultures, it was a god who offered peace. To sum cultures, it was the sister of the Sun. In the Meso-American cultures, it was considered as the guardian of the night. In ancient Indian civilization, the Moon was called Chandra or Soma. As per the Puranas, Chandra was married to 27 daughters of Prajapati Daksha. Now you could get away with polygamy in those days but don't try that in today's time. As per Matsya Purana, Daksha and his wife Panchajani had 62 daughters, out of which 27 were married to the Moon. 10 of them were married to Dharmah, 13 were married to Sage Kashyap, 4 to Arishtanemi, 1 to Kam, 1 to Shiva, 2 to the sons of Sage Brigu, 2 to Sage Angiras and 2 to Krushasava. When Prajapati Daksha gave away his 27 daughters, he asked Chandra to take a note that Chandra would not show favoritism towards any of his 27 daughters. However, Chandra was drawn to Rohini and she became his beloved wife. Chandra spent all of his time with Rohini alone and so the other 26 wives felt neglected. Daksha came to know that the Moon has broken his promise. So, Daksha cursed the Moon that his radiance will be permanently diminished as a mark of breaking the promise. Chandra begged and apologized for years but Daksha was firm on his decision. So, as a last resort, Chandra went to Lord Shiva to rescue him from his eternal shame. Lord Shiva, being the benevolent deity, granted him blessing that his radiance would diminish gradually for some time and then increase gradually from the remaining time in a cyclical period. This story relates to the waxing and the waning phases of the Moon. But is it possible that the deal of the 27 wives of the Moon might be somehow related to astronomy? In Hindu astronomy, there is a concept called Anakshatra. With years and years of scrupulous observations, the ancient Indians realized that the Moon rises at a different time every day against a different backdrop of stars. They also observed that the Moon takes around 27 days to return to the same backdrop of stars from when it started. So, the ancient Indians divided the lunar orbit into 27 parts which are called the Anakshatras. The Moon travels through all the 27 Anakshatras in 27 days. These Anakshatras one nothing but the wives of the Moon, with whom the Moon spends one night with each wife, following his curse of waxing and waning. This is how the story of the Moon and his 27 wives relates to a factual observation. This story reveals the 27 day revolution period of the Moon. Astronomically speaking, Anakshatra is a one by 27th division of the lunar orbit. Anakshatra spans 13.33 degrees or 800 angular minutes. This gives us the average daily speed of the Moon. Anakshatra can be a single star or even a group of stars, but only dividing the sky into 27 parts wasn't enough. It was also important that you identify these divisions distinctly. For this purpose, Yogataras or the brightest star of the Anakshatra was used as an identifier. From this, we learn that Anakshatra is purely an astronomical concept, and this was portrayed in the form of a beautiful tale of the 27 wives of the Moon. But what about the detail regarding the favoritism of Chandra towards Rohini? Could this minute detail from the story also relate to something astronomical? The Earth revolves around the Sun in a plane called the Eclimbically. But as seen from the Earth, we see the Sun moving in the sky from west to east through the 12 zodiacs over the course of one year. Hence, as seen from the Earth, the path followed by the Sun in the sky as it moves from west to east is called the Ecliptic. Now the orbit of the Moon is inclined to the orbit of the Earth by roughly 5 degrees. As a result of this, we see the Moon moving in the sky in the range of plus minus 5 degrees, either to the north or to the south of the Ecliptic. While the Moon travels from west to east in 27 days passing through 27 Anakshatras, sometimes the disc of the Moon covers certain stars in the background. This is called Lunar Occultation. From our current astronomical understanding, we realize that the principal stars or the Yogatara of the Anakshatras, which are present between 4 to 6 degrees of the Ecliptic, experience a cluster of occultations over 4 years, which repeat all over after 19 years. This is called the Midonic Cycle. So how does all of this explain why the Moon favoured Rohini? It turns out that the star Rohini, which is identified as Aldebaran in modern astronomy, lies at 5 degrees from the Ecliptic. This means that Rohini is going to experience a cluster of occultations in a period of 4 years, which is going to repeat after a period of 19 years. In the latest cluster of 2015, to 2018, there were a total of 51 occultations of Aldebaran or Rohini. This is substantially higher than the occultations of any other principal stars from the remaining 26 Nakshatras. This is a powerful mnemonic that portrays the ingenious manner of the ancient Indians to pass on their wisdom via stories and tales that would be easier to remember. So the next time you hear someone dismissing these tales as silly, ask them to hold their horses and reflect on these tales. These tales of ancient India could be concealing millennia of wisdom. But then the question remains, how do you mark the location of these stars in the sky? While marking the position of a Yogatara of an Akshatra, ancient Indians have considered its distance from the Wernal Equinox or Vasantasampad Bindu. So the distance of any Yogatara from the Ashwini Nakshatra or the first point of Eres is called Bhoga or Celestial Longitude of that star. The Celestial Longitude of the Wernal Equinox is considered as zero, after which the first Nakshatra is named as Ashwini. The Bhoga of Ashwini Nakshatra is thus 13 degrees and 20 minutes. The term Shara, Celestial or Ecliptic latitude as it is called, measures the angular distance of an object from the Ecliptic towards the north or south of the Ecliptic pool. Shara of Pusha or Delta of Cancer, Magha or Regulus, Shatatara or Gamma of Aquarius, and Ravati Nakshatra or Zida of Pisces is zero degrees. It means that these stars lie over the Ecliptic. The stars in all the other Nakshatras lie either to the north or to the south of the Ecliptic. All of this shows us the wisdom of ancient Indian astronomers and that's a picture of an intellectually evolved Bharat of the past. If you liked our research then don't forget to hit the follow button and share this video with your followers to spread the knowledge about the greatness of ancient India with as many people as we can. Shubhastay Bantana Santu Jai Hind Jai Bharat Dheera Kittasana Dhaana Dhaana Dheera Kittasana Dheera Kittasana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dha Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dhaana Dha Dhaana DhaR..