Maghā (Nakshatra)
Maghā, “the bountiful one”
Grammar: feminine noun, from magha (gift, bounty): “the bountiful one”.
Meaning: one of the twenty-seven nakshatras (the lunar mansions), lying in the rāśi Siṃha.
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 heart of Mahākāla is Siṃha, the kshetra of Ravi, made of Maghā, Pūrvaphalgunī and the first caraṇa (quarter) of Uttaraphalgunī (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5).
In their teaching on conduct to the rākshasa king Sukeśī, the ṛshis give rules by nakshatra: a man does not go to his wife on Maghā, Kṛttikā and Uttarā (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 14).
In the Nakshatra Purusha vrata, the twenty-seven nakshatras are the limbs of Śrī Hari, the nakshatra-purusha form of Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, and Maghā is the abode of his nose (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 54).
Related terms: Nakshatra · Siṃha · Pūrvaphalgunī · Uttaraphalgunī · Kālarūpī
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 14, 54