Punarvasu (Nakshatra)
Punarvasu · punar-vasu, “the good ones again”
Grammar: masculine or feminine noun, from punar (again) and vasu (good, wealth): “good again”.
Meaning: one of the twenty-seven nakshatras (the lunar mansions), whose first three pādas lie in the rāśi Mithuna and whose last pāda lies in Karkaṭaka.
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 arms of Mahādeva are Mithuna, the kshetra of Budha, made of the third and fourth pādas of Mṛgaśira, Ārdrā and the first three pādas of Punarvasu. The two sides of Vyomakeśa (“whose hair is the sky”) are Karkaṭaka, the kshetra of Candra, made of the last caraṇa (quarter) of Punarvasu, Pushyamī and Āśleshā (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 Punarvasu dwells on his fingers. In the rite, on the day the moon is joined with Punarvasu, one worships the fingers of Śrī Hari and offers cucumbers as the dohada (the special offering that fulfils the longing) (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 54).
Related terms: Nakshatra · Mithuna · Karkaṭaka · Ārdrā · Pushya · Kālarūpī · Dohada
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 54