Jyeshṭhā (Nakshatra)
Jyeshṭhā, “the eldest”
Grammar: feminine noun, from jyeshṭha (eldest, best): “the eldest”.
Meaning: one of the twenty-seven nakshatras (the lunar mansions), lying wholly in the rāśi Vṛścika. The month Jyeshṭha is named after it.
In the scriptures: when the devatā of Daksha‘s yajña fled into the sky in the form of a deer, Bhagavān Śiva pursued it as Kālarūpī, the form of Time, and occupied the sky. Pulastya Maharshi describes that body to Nārada limb by limb, each limb a rāśi with its nakshatras. The private part of Kālarūpī is Vṛścika, the second house of Kuja, made of the fourth pāda (quarter) of Viśākhā, Anurādhā and Jyeshṭhā (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5).
In the Nakshatra Purusha vrata, the twenty-seven nakshatras are the limbs of Śrī Hari, the nakshatra-purusha form of Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, and Jyeshṭhā is on his neck. In the rite, on the day the moon is joined with Jyeshṭhā, one worships the neck of Śrī Hari and offers sesame laḍḍus as the dohada, the special offering that fulfils the longing (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 54).
When Bhagavān Vāmana asks Bali for ground for the third step, Bali’s son Bāṇa answers him with reasons. “A gift made knowing the place, the time and the recipient becomes akshaya (imperishable),” he says. His father’s gift was land; the recipient was the Deva of devas; the time was the holy yoga of the moon with the nakshatras Jyeshṭhā and Mūla; and the place was Kurukshetra, the crown among kshetras (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 65).
Related terms: Nakshatra · Anurādhā · Mūla · Vṛścika · Kālarūpī · Dohada · Jyeshṭha
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 54, 65