Mesha (Rāśi)
Mesha, “the ram”
Grammar: masculine noun: the ram.
Meaning: the ram; and the first of the twelve rāśis (the signs through which the Sun and the planets move), the kshetra of Kuja, named for its form as a ram.
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 (quarter) of Kṛttikā (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5).
Nārada then asks the form and marks of the twelve rāśis, and Pulastya Maharshi tells each in turn. Mesha has the shape of a ram. Under its movement and influence lie grains, mines of gems, goats and sheep, heaps of wealth, pastures, and the banks of water-bodies bright with green crops. 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 first leaf is the syllable Oṃ on the śikhā (the tuft of hair on the crown), with the Mesha rāśi above it and the month Vaiśākha (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
Bhagavān Śiva tells Janārdana of the Sudarśana cakra he gives him, the best of weapons, able to destroy all others. In its spokes are the devatās, the twelve months, the twelve rāśis beginning with Mesha, and the six ṛtus (seasons) (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 56).
Related terms: Rāśi · Kālarūpī · Aśvinī · Bharaṇī · Kṛttikā · Sudarśana
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 35, 56