Ketu

Ketu · ketu, “the banner, the bright sign”

Kuśa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kuśa. Arka has other meanings too: see all meanings of Arka.

Ketu is the ninth of the nine grahas, the powers of the sky on whom, the Agni Purāṇa says, the rise and fall of kings depends: Sūrya, Candra, Kuja (Maṅgala), Budha, Bṛhaspati, Śukra, Śani, Rāhu and Ketu. The Agni Purāṇa describes him holding a khaḍga (sword) and a dīpa (lamp); in another chapter it gives him the colour of smoke, with a lotus, his left hand resting on his left thigh and his right hand raised in abhaya (the gesture that grants fearlessness). His mūrti (image) is made of lead, his samidh is kuśa grass, and the brāhmaṇas fed in his honour are given citrānna (coloured rice).

Ketu is worshipped with the other grahas in many rites the Purāṇa teaches: in the worship of Bhagavān Sūrya, where he takes the north-east with the mantra oṃ keṃ ketave namaḥ; in the Navagraha-homa and the great graha-yajñas, where he is invoked in the north-west of the maṇḍala; at Gayā, where Sūrya is saluted in the form of all the grahas down to Ketu; and in the king’s prayer for victory before battle. Brahmā gave the grahas a vara (a blessing granted): whoever worships them, they must protect. The Purāṇa also teaches where Ketu stands well in the chart, and that the rising of a ketu (a comet) is a sign of fear.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 21, 51, 73, 164, 167, 300

His form

In the chapter on the marks of the images of Sūrya and the others, Bhagavān Hayagrīva describes each graha by what he holds: Candra a water-pot and a japamālā, Kuja a śakti and an akshamālā, Budha a bow and an akshamālā, Bṛhaspati and Śukra a water-pot and an akshamālā, Śani a cord hung with small bells, Rāhu a half-moon, and Ketu a sword and a lamp in his hands (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 51).

In the rite for removing the affliction of the grahas, Agnideva says that all the grahas beginning with Sūrya are gentle (saumya), give strength and hold lotuses, and their garments shine like a mass of lightning. Bṛhaspati is yellow, Śukra white, Śani black like charcoal, and Rāhu and Ketu are of the colour of smoke. All of them rest the left hand on the left thigh and show abhaya with the right (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 300).

His chariot, like those of Budha, Śukra, Kuja, Guru, Śani and Rāhu, has eight horses (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 120).

In the Navagraha-homa

The Agni Purāṇa gives a chapter to the homa for the nine grahas. It is begun by one who desires prosperity, peace, rain, long life or strength, or one about to begin a rite against an enemy. Ketu is the last of the nine, and his part in the rite is this:

  • His mūrti is made of lead, the metal he shares with Rāhu. The grahas may also be drawn in their own colours, or worshipped on maṇḍalas drawn with fragrant paste.
  • Offerings: cloth, flowers, gandha (sandal paste) and bali (food offerings) in the graha’s own colour, incense of guggulu, and caru (cooked oblation) with his mantra.
  • His mantra begins Ketuṃ kṛṇvann…
  • His samidh (fuel stick for the homa) is kuśa. The samidhs are offered 108 times, or the other number the text gives, with honey, ghee and curd.
  • The brāhmaṇas fed in his honour are given citrānna.

Whichever graha stands in a bad place in a man’s chart and harms him, that graha he should worship. Brahmā gave the grahas a vara: “Whoever worships you, you must protect them.” The rise and fall of kings depends on the grahas, and so do the continuance and the dissolution of the world; therefore the grahas are always to be worshipped (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 164).

Among the mantras of the Veda and their uses, the Purāṇa says that the mantra Ketuṃ kṛṇvan increases victory in battle (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 260).

In the graha-yajña

For prosperity, peace and victory Agnideva teaches the graha-yajña of three kinds: the ayuta-homa of ten thousand offerings, the laksha-homa of a hundred thousand and the koṭi-homa of ten million. In a maṇḍala north-east of the fire-altar the grahas are invoked: Sūrya in the middle, Guru in the north, Budha in the north-east, Śukra on the eastern petal, Candra in the south-east, Kuja in the south, Śani in the west, Rāhu in the south-west and Ketu in the north-west. Kuśa, the last of the nine samidhs, is offered for him. At the close, the patrons of the rite are given abhisheka (the sacred bath) from four kalaśas with the words: “May Āditya, Candra, Kuja, Budha, Guru, Śukra, Śani, Rāhu and Ketu, well pleased, give you abhisheka” (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 167).

With Bhagavān Sūrya

In the general pūjā. In Nārada Maharshi‘s teaching on the general pūjā of the devas, after the worship of Bhagavān Sūrya, his śakti Rājñī and Chāyā Devī, the worshipper honours Soma, Aṅgāraka, Budha, Guru, Śukra, Śani, Rāhu and Ketu, and Tejaścaṇḍa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 21).

In the Sūrya-pūjā. In the rite of Sūrya-pūjā that Bhagavān Śiva (Parameśvara) teaches Skanda, the grahas are honoured after the aṅgas: Candra, Budha, Bṛhaspati and Śukra in the four main directions from the east, and Kuja, Śanaiścara, Rāhu and Ketu in the intermediate directions from the south-east. Ketu takes the north-east and is worshipped with the mantra oṃ keṃ ketave namaḥ, with gandha and the other offerings (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 73).

In the rite against the affliction of the grahas. In the Sūrya-ārādhana that removes the affliction of the grahas, after the śaktis and Ravi are worshipped, Candra, Budha, Guru and Śukra are worshipped in the main directions from the east, and Maṅgala, Śanaiścara, Rāhu and Ketu in the intermediate directions from the south-east (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 300).

At Gayā. On the first day of the pilgrimage to Gayā, after bathing in the Uttaramānasa tīrtha and offering tarpaṇa (offerings of water) and piṇḍa (rice-balls for the forefathers), the pilgrim says: “Namaskāra to Sūrya, who is in the form of Soma, Maṅgala, Budha, Bṛhaspati, Śukra, Śani, Rāhu and Ketu” (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 115).

In the march to war

In the raṇadīkshā (the consecration for battle), Pushkara teaches that the grahas are worshipped on the fourth day. In the king’s prayer for victory, Sūrya, Soma, Bhauma, Budha, Bṛhaspati, Śukra, Śanaiścara, Rāhu and Ketu are named with Vāsudeva, Śiva, Gaṇeśa, Kārttikeya, the Devī and all the devatās of dyuloka (the sky), antariksha (the mid-space) and the earth, and asked to give him victory (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 236).

In the rule of the yuddha-yātrā (the march to war), Pushkara says that the king should attack from the side from which an earthquake came, and from the side that Ketu, the comet, has afflicted by his influence (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 228).

In the chart and among the signs

In the times for a pratishṭhā (the installation of a liṅga in a temple), Bhagavān Śiva teaches the good places of the grahas: Śani, Kuja and Ketu are auspicious in the sixth or the third place (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 95).

Among the utpātas (portents) and their śānti (the rites that calm them), Pushkara tells Paraśurāma: if dust or smoke fills the ten directions, if a ketu (comet) rises, if an eclipse comes, or if a hole is seen in the disc of the Sun or the Moon, these are disturbances of the grahas and nakshatras, and wherever they are seen they show fear there. Such utpātas are calmed by the worship of brāhmaṇas and devatās and by japa and homa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 263).

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 21, 51, 73, 95, 115, 120, 164, 167, 228, 236, 260, 263, 300