Abhijit (Nakshatra)
Abhijit · abhi-jit, “the victorious”
Hastā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Hastā.
Grammar: masculine noun; abhi (towards, over) with jit (conquering, from the root ji, to conquer): “the victorious”.
Meaning: a nakshatra (lunar mansion), counted with the twenty-seven to make twenty-eight.
In the scriptures: in the Brahma Purāṇa, Vyāsa, teaching the munis the kāmya śrāddhas (the śrāddhas offered for a wished-for fruit), gives the fruit of śrāddha on each nakshatra in turn, twenty-eight in all with Abhijit. Abhijit comes after Dhanishṭhā, which gives abundance of wealth, and before Vāruṇa (Śatabhishak), which gives success in medicine: śrāddha on Abhijit makes one a knower of the Vedas. “Therefore by kāmya śrāddhas too one must please the pitṛ-devatās” (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 220).
Per Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Rādhā, teaching Uddhava about time, names the twenty-eight nakshatras in order, the wives of Candra, with Abhijit twenty-third, between Śravaṇa and Dhanishṭhā. The Śruti counts twenty-seven nakshatras; Abhijit is the shadow (chāyā) of the nakshatra Śravaṇā, and so twenty-eight are counted. Once, in the season of Vasanta, Candra delighted every day, day and night, with the beautiful Rohiṇī. Then Śravaṇā became angry; she gave her shadow, Abhijit, to Candra and went in fear to her father. Afterwards she brought her father and a division was made, and so the nakshatra called Abhijit came to be. The text adds that this was heard from the mouth of Śrī Kṛshṇa on the mountain Śataśṛṅga (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 96).
Related terms: Nakshatra · Śrāddha · Dhanishṭhā · Śatabhishak
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 220
- Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 96