Kumbha (Rāśi)
Kumbha, “the pot”
Grammar: masculine noun: “pot, water-jar”.
Meaning: the pot or water-jar; and the eleventh of the twelve rāśis (the signs through which the Sun and the planets move), named for its form as a man carrying a pot.
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 shanks of Kālarūpī, who is here called Svāmī, are Kumbha, the second house of Sūrya, made of the third and fourth pādas (quarters) of Dhanishṭhā, Śatabhishak and three pādas of Pūrvābhādrā (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5).
Nārada then asks the form and marks of the twelve rāśis, and Pulastya Maharshi tells each in turn. Kumbha is like a man wet with water, carrying on his shoulder a pot with no water in it, and gambling houses and drinking halls lie under its influence. Pulastya Maharshi closes by saying that what he has told of the rāśis is very secret and ancient, not to be told to anyone (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5).
In the dvādaśa-patraka yoga, the yoga of the twelve leaves that Brahmā (Pitāmaha) teaches Sanatkumāra, each leaf has a syllable, a place on the body, a rāśi and a month. The eleventh leaf is the syllable vā on the knees, with Kumbha and the month Phālguna. The twelve leaves make the cakra of Keśava Vāsudeva, the Paramātmā, and for those who know it there is no more death (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
Related terms: Rāśi · Kālarūpī · Dhanishṭhā · Śatabhishak · Pūrvābhādrā · Kalaśa
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 35