Siṃha (Rāśi)
Siṃha, “the lion”
Grammar: masculine noun: “lion”.
Meaning: the lion; and the fifth of the twelve rāśis (the signs through which the Sun and the planets move), the kshetra (house) of Ravi, the Sun, named for its form as a lion.
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).
Nārada then asks the form and marks of the twelve rāśis, and Pulastya Maharshi tells each in turn. Siṃha has the form of a lion, and its places are mountain forests, valleys, caves, the hamlets of hunters and other places hard to reach. 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 fifth leaf is the syllable ga, in the region of the heart, with Siṃha and the month Bhādrapada. 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 · Maghā · Pūrvaphalgunī · Uttaraphalgunī · Ravi
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 35