Bharaṇī (Nakshatra)
Bharaṇī, “the bearer”
Grammar: feminine noun, from the root bhṛ (to bear, to carry): “the bearer”.
Meaning: one of the twenty-seven nakshatras (the lunar mansions), lying in the rāśi Mesha.
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 head of Kāleśvara is Mesha, the kshetra of Kuja, made of Aśvinī, Bharaṇī and the first pāda of Kṛttikā (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 Bharaṇī is his head. In the rite, on the day the moon is joined with Bharaṇī, one worships the head of Śrī Hari and gives tasty food as the dohada, the special offering that fulfils the longing (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 54).
Related terms: Nakshatra · Mesha · Aśvinī · Kṛttikā · Kālarūpī · Dohada
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 54