Tulā (Rāśi)
Tulā, “the balance”
Grammar: feminine noun, from the root tul (to lift, to weigh): “the balance, the scales”.
Meaning: the balance; and the seventh of the twelve rāśis (the signs through which the Sun and the planets move), the second house of Śukra, named for its form as a man holding a balance.
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 navel, called “the path of the sky”, is Tulā, the second house of Śukra, made of the third and fourth pādas (quarters) of Citrā, Svātī and three pādas of Viśākhā (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5).
Nārada then asks the form and marks of the twelve rāśis, and Pulastya Maharshi tells each in turn. Tulā has the form of a man holding a balance in his hand, and its places are market streets, trading houses and the centres of cities. 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 seventh leaf is the syllable te, resting on the group of astras, with Tulā and the month Kārttika. 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 · Citrā · Svātī · Viśākhā · Śukra
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 35