*************************************************************************************************************************
Last night I was talking of our moon (Moonji) and his curse by our Ganeshji.
Our Moon is very special to us, and has always been.
Our ancestors, after they became food gatherers than food hunters (a full time job), started looking at our skies and wondering.
And they saw the Sun, the stars, and the Moon.
The Sun was steady and the stars shy.
But the Moon was big time loony...it had its phases, from nil to full via crescent and mid. And its phases were regular.
So they associated any periodic cycles in their lives with the phases of the Moon and alleged it was all Moon's doing.
Like for instance lunacy. It was observed, with little scientific evidence, that loony folks became more loony at full moon...that is why they called it lunacy.
In particular they attributed bipolar disorder (mood swings) and schizophrenia (split personality) to the Moon chap.
Well, I am an authority on lunacy, having been a confirmed loony ever since I went on an unannounced expedition to a neighboring village one evening all alone when I was just 5. And I can confirm that my lunacy has nothing to do with the poor Moon...it is sort of genetic.
Being a student of physics (of a sort) I can say confidently that all that our Moon can do is to raise tides in our oceans and bores in our Hooghly. This is of course due to its gravity. Well, our Sun too can do it impressively (called beautifully, the Spring and Neap tides).
But tides are substantially raised and an ebb and flow caused only in liquids like water. And I am sure that my brain is not all watery...some gray matter is there turning black now by the day (called old age Alzheimers).
Anyway, our Coromandel Coast being close to our Equator, and dusty, we rarely had the chance to see the crescent moon on the second day of the new lunar month (dooz ka chand).
So whenever this rare moony crescent was sighted, ladies used to rush out of their homes and tease a wee thread of their frayed cotton saris and launch it with their comely hands towards the crescent moon. Apparently they believed that this ritual brings them new saris pretty quick (meaning their husbands would get a quick DA raise).
Charming ritual still practiced.
What the moon has to do with saris was and is beyond me.
Then there were these frequent eclipses of the Moon.
Everyone knows why lunar and solar eclipses occur...because our Earth, Sun and Moon get into a line, somewhat, in their crazy periodic rotations.
But no one knows why the apparent size of the full moon and the size of the Sun are almost equal. It is one of those freaky things of astronomy.
The best answer is that Lord God wanted us to enjoy our eclipses now and put the fear of God in our ancestors.
No doubt, our moms were scared of lunar eclipses.
There were many myths and observances during the lunar eclipses.
No food can be eaten during the course of the eclipse, say, for 4 hours, till the serpent Rahu spews out the moon she has swallowed, without digesting it.
Any cooked food has to be covered with plates on which the sharp and thorny darbha (kusha) grass is strewn.
After the Moon is completely released and back to normal, everyone in the household has to take a purifying bath before eating.
And pregnant ladies are not, never, allowed to watch the eclipse.
For, the baby they carry inside them would develop, automatically, a cleft lip (hair lip).
Sigh!
Hair lip was such a curse...it was and is a frequent birth defect and nothing could be done except grin and bear it.
Till Smile Pinki arrived with her charming smile...
***********************************************************************************************************************
Last night I was talking of our moon (Moonji) and his curse by our Ganeshji.
Our Moon is very special to us, and has always been.
Our ancestors, after they became food gatherers than food hunters (a full time job), started looking at our skies and wondering.
And they saw the Sun, the stars, and the Moon.
The Sun was steady and the stars shy.
But the Moon was big time loony...it had its phases, from nil to full via crescent and mid. And its phases were regular.
So they associated any periodic cycles in their lives with the phases of the Moon and alleged it was all Moon's doing.
Like for instance lunacy. It was observed, with little scientific evidence, that loony folks became more loony at full moon...that is why they called it lunacy.
In particular they attributed bipolar disorder (mood swings) and schizophrenia (split personality) to the Moon chap.
Well, I am an authority on lunacy, having been a confirmed loony ever since I went on an unannounced expedition to a neighboring village one evening all alone when I was just 5. And I can confirm that my lunacy has nothing to do with the poor Moon...it is sort of genetic.
Being a student of physics (of a sort) I can say confidently that all that our Moon can do is to raise tides in our oceans and bores in our Hooghly. This is of course due to its gravity. Well, our Sun too can do it impressively (called beautifully, the Spring and Neap tides).
But tides are substantially raised and an ebb and flow caused only in liquids like water. And I am sure that my brain is not all watery...some gray matter is there turning black now by the day (called old age Alzheimers).
Anyway, our Coromandel Coast being close to our Equator, and dusty, we rarely had the chance to see the crescent moon on the second day of the new lunar month (dooz ka chand).
So whenever this rare moony crescent was sighted, ladies used to rush out of their homes and tease a wee thread of their frayed cotton saris and launch it with their comely hands towards the crescent moon. Apparently they believed that this ritual brings them new saris pretty quick (meaning their husbands would get a quick DA raise).
Charming ritual still practiced.
What the moon has to do with saris was and is beyond me.
Then there were these frequent eclipses of the Moon.
Everyone knows why lunar and solar eclipses occur...because our Earth, Sun and Moon get into a line, somewhat, in their crazy periodic rotations.
But no one knows why the apparent size of the full moon and the size of the Sun are almost equal. It is one of those freaky things of astronomy.
The best answer is that Lord God wanted us to enjoy our eclipses now and put the fear of God in our ancestors.
No doubt, our moms were scared of lunar eclipses.
There were many myths and observances during the lunar eclipses.
No food can be eaten during the course of the eclipse, say, for 4 hours, till the serpent Rahu spews out the moon she has swallowed, without digesting it.
Any cooked food has to be covered with plates on which the sharp and thorny darbha (kusha) grass is strewn.
After the Moon is completely released and back to normal, everyone in the household has to take a purifying bath before eating.
And pregnant ladies are not, never, allowed to watch the eclipse.
For, the baby they carry inside them would develop, automatically, a cleft lip (hair lip).
Sigh!
Hair lip was such a curse...it was and is a frequent birth defect and nothing could be done except grin and bear it.
Till Smile Pinki arrived with her charming smile...
...Posted by Ishani
No comments:
Post a Comment