Linga Mahā Purana
56 - Description of the Moon
Sūta said:
1. The Moon traverses the stars stationed in its orbit. His chariot has three wheels, and the horses are on either side.
2. The chariot is fitted with three wheels, each with hundred spokes. The horses are white in colour and ten in number. They are divine and stout. They are not connected with the yoke. They have the speed of the mind.
3. The moon traverses in this chariot along with Devas and Pitrus. It has white rays in the form of sparkling water particles.
4-6. The moon increases in force in the beginning of the bright half and is stationed in the way of the sun. Day by day it gets refilled till the end of that half. The sun develops and nourishes it. It is drunk up by Devas during the dark half.342 It is being drunk in continuity for fifteen days by Devas. The sun refills it part by part by his single ray Susumnā: Thus, the physical body of the moon is developed and nourished by the vigour of the sun.
342. Cf. suşhumnaḥ süryaraśhmiśh chandrama gandharvahy. TS 3.4.7.1.
7-10a. On the full moon day, it appears with its full white disc. Beginning with the second and ending with the fourteenth day in the dark half, Devas drink up the moon that was nourished and devcloped day by day during the bright half. They drink the watery honey and nectar that had been accumulated in the course of half a month, thanks to the splendour of the sun. They sit near the moon for a single night on the full moon day for drinking up the nectar from the moon, along with the sages and Pitrus.
10b-13. The digits of the moon facing the sun get diminished daily, being drunk up from the beginning to the end of the dark half. Thirtysix thousand three hundred and thirty-three Devas drink the moon. After the moon has been drunk for half a month, day by day by them, those excellent Devas go away on the new moon day. On the new moon day, the Pitřus occupy the Moon.
14-18. When the fifteenth part remains as the last digit, the groups of Pitrus occupy this in the afternoon. For the duration of two kalās (units of time) they drink up the remaining digit--the nectar of svadhã that has oozed out of the rays on the Amavāsyä day. After drinking the nectar, they attain full satiety for the whole of month and then go away. By the time the remaining digit of the moon drunk by the Pitrus gets dissolved, a fifteenth part is replenished. The increase and the decrease of the moon in the beginning of each fortnight is on the sixteenth day.343 The increase in the moon is thus due to the sun.
343. şhodaśhyām=on the sixteenth, i.e., on the new-moon day.
Summary of chapter 56 of the Linga Mahā Purana is as follows:
This chapter details Somavarṇana, describing the divine nature, origin, and celestial chariot of Soma, the moon god. The text explains how the moon stores divine nectar during the bright fortnight and nourishes devas, pitṛs, herbs, and medicinal plants during the dark fortnight, maintaining the vital balance of cosmic life.