Mīna (Rāśi)
Mīna, “the fish”
Grammar: masculine noun: the fish.
Meaning: the fish; and the twelfth of the twelve rāśis (the signs through which the Sun and the planets move), the second house of Bṛhaspati, named for its form as a pair of fish.
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 two feet of Maheśvara, called the path of the sky, are Mīna, the second house of Bṛhaspati, made of the last pāda (quarter) of Pūrvābhādrā, Uttarābhādrā and Revatī (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5).
Nārada then asks the form and marks of the twelve rāśis, and Pulastya Maharshi tells each in turn. Mīna appears like two fish joined together. It moves in holy tīrthas, in the oceans and in the kshetras, and dwells in puṇya lands and in the houses of devas and brāhmaṇas. 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 twelfth leaf is on the feet, with the Mīna rāśi and the month Caitra. The twelve leaves make the cakra of Keśava Vāsudeva, the Paramātmā (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
Related terms: Rāśi · Kālarūpī · Pūrvābhādrā · Uttarābhādrā · Revatī
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 35