Chandra's 27 Wives: Daksha's Curse, Rohini and the 27 Nakshatras

A Moon-God With 27 Wives

The ancient sages told a strange story about the Moon.

His name was Chandra, also called Soma, and he had twenty-seven wives. He had promised to love them all equally, but he didn't. His heart settled on one of them, he stayed too long with her, and he was cursed for it.

It sounds like pure mythology. But against the background stars, the Moon completes one full circuit in about 27.3 days, passing through 27 star groups that Indian astronomers have named and tracked for thousands of years.

This article tells the story in full, as the Puranas and the Somnath tradition preserve it, then turns to the sky itself: what the 27 Nakshatras are, which deity and planet each is linked with, how the Moon moves through them, and how they still shape Hindu names, calendars and festivals today.

Who Is Chandra?

In Sanatan Dharma, Chandra is at once the visible Moon and a deva with his own personality and story. He goes by many names: Soma, Shashi (the one marked with a hare), Indu, Nishakara (maker of the night), and Oshadhipati, lord of healing plants.

Accounts of his origin differ. Several Puranas describe him as the son of the sage Atri and his wife Anasuya; others describe the Moon rising from the ocean during the Samudra Manthan. In Vedic ritual, Soma is also the sacred plant and its offering, which later tradition came to identify with the Moon.

Chandra's role is gentle and nourishing. In the Bhagavad Gita (15.13), Shri Krishna says he nourishes all plants by becoming Soma, the essence of sap and flavour. And in the Gita's list of divine glories (10.21), he says: nakṣatrāṇām ahaṃ śaśī, "among the stars, I am the Moon." Even in that one line, the Moon and the nakshatras belong together.

The Full Story of Chandra, Daksha and Rohini

Daksha's Twenty-Seven Daughters

Daksha Prajapati, one of the progenitors of creation, had many daughters. The Bhagavata Purana tells of sixty, whom he gave in marriage to various sages and devas: some to Dharma, thirteen to the sage Kashyapa (among them Aditi and Diti, the mothers of the devas and asuras), and twenty-seven to Chandra. Another of his daughters, Sati, became the wife of Bhagwan Shiva, a thread that makes this story more poignant still.

The twenty-seven sisters given to Chandra were the Nakshatras themselves. Daksha asked one thing of his son-in-law: that he honour every one of his wives equally.

The Favourite

Chandra did not keep that promise. Of all the sisters he was drawn to Rohini, described as the most beautiful and radiant, and he spent his time almost only with her. The other twenty-six were left waiting, night after night.

Notice that the story does not blame Rohini. The fault lies with Chandra, who broke his promise.

The Complaint and the Warning

Hurt, the sisters returned to their father. Daksha counselled Chandra to treat all his wives fairly. Chandra agreed, then changed nothing. Daksha warned him again, and still the Moon lingered with Rohini.

The Curse

At last Daksha's patience broke. He cursed Chandra with a wasting disease, called kshaya or rajayakshma in the texts, the same word Ayurveda uses for consumption. Chandra's light began to fade. Night by night he grew thinner and dimmer.

The Puranas describe this as a crisis for the whole world: the plants Chandra nourished began to wither. A private fault had become a public harm.

Penance at Prabhas

Desperate, Chandra went to the devas, and they took him to Brahma. Brahma told him that only Bhagwan Shiva could help, and directed him to the sacred shore of Prabhas, on the western coast of present-day Gujarat. There Chandra installed a Shivalinga and worshipped Mahadev with long and intense penance. The Shiva Purana associates this worship with the Mahamrityunjaya mantra, the prayer for victory over death and decay.

You can read more about this sacred shore and its temple in our guide to Somnath Jyotirlinga.

The Waxing and Waning

Moved by Chandra's devotion, Shiva appeared. He did not simply cancel Daksha's curse. A curse spoken by a Prajapati carries weight, and Chandra's fault was real. Instead, Shiva found a middle path. The Moon would wane for one fortnight, the Krishna Paksha, and wax again in the next, the Shukla Paksha. Chandra would lose his light and regain it, again and again, forever.

In this reading, every lunar month retells the story: the curse working through the dark fortnight, and Shiva's grace restoring the Moon through the bright one.

Shiva Wears the Crescent

Shiva then placed the crescent Moon in his matted locks. From this he is called Chandrashekhara, "the one who wears the Moon as his crest," and Somnath, "Lord of the Moon." Chandra is said to have built the first shrine at Prabhas in gratitude, and the Jyotirlinga there is honoured as the first of the twelve.

Monday, Somvar, is the Moon's day and is sacred to Shiva, especially in the month of Shravan, when devotees keep the Sawan Somvar vrat.

Where the Story Comes From

This is not a single fixed text but a story told in several places, with differences in detail:

• Taittiriya Samhita (Krishna Yajurveda): an early form, in which Prajapati gives his daughters to King Soma, who favours Rohini and is afflicted by disease. In this telling the number of daughters is given as thirty-three, and the story explains a ritual for healing.
• Mahabharata: the Shalya Parva, in describing Balarama's pilgrimage to Prabhasa, tells of Soma's curse and his healing by bathing there.
• Shiva Purana and Skanda Purana: the Somnath version, with Chandra's worship of Shiva at Prabhas and the founding of the Jyotirlinga.
• Bhagavata Purana: Daksha's daughters and their marriages, including the twenty-seven given to Soma.

Whether Chandra was healed by Shiva's grace alone, by bathing at Prabhas, or both, varies from text to text. The heart of the story stays the same: a broken promise, a curse, penance, and a compromise that the Moon still lives out every month.

The 27 Nakshatras: Names, Deities and Ruling Planets

The twenty-seven wives are the twenty-seven Nakshatras, or lunar mansions. Each is linked with a presiding deity, drawn from Vedic lists such as the Taittiriya Samhita and Brahmana, and, in later Jyotisha, with a ruling planet under the Vimshottari dasha system. The table below follows the standard lists; a few deities are named differently in some sources (Chitra's deity Tvashtr, for example, is often identified with Vishwakarma, the divine architect).

#	Nakshatra	Presiding deity	Ruling planet (Vimshottari)
1	Ashwini	Ashwini Kumaras	Ketu
2	Bharani	Yama	Venus (Shukra)
3	Krittika	Agni	Sun (Surya)
4	Rohini	Prajapati (Brahma)	Moon (Chandra)
5	Mrigashira	Soma	Mars (Mangal)
6	Ardra	Rudra	Rahu
7	Punarvasu	Aditi	Jupiter (Guru)
8	Pushya	Brihaspati	Saturn (Shani)
9	Ashlesha	Sarpas (Nagas)	Mercury (Budh)
10	Magha	Pitris (ancestors)	Ketu
11	Purva Phalguni	Bhaga	Venus
12	Uttara Phalguni	Aryaman	Sun
13	Hasta	Savitr	Moon
14	Chitra	Tvashtr (Vishwakarma)	Mars
15	Swati	Vayu	Rahu
16	Vishakha	Indra and Agni	Jupiter
17	Anuradha	Mitra	Saturn
18	Jyeshtha	Indra	Mercury
19	Mula	Nirriti	Ketu
20	Purva Ashadha	Apas (the waters)	Venus
21	Uttara Ashadha	Vishvedevas	Sun
22	Shravana	Vishnu	Moon
23	Dhanishtha	The eight Vasus	Mars
24	Shatabhisha	Varuna	Rahu
25	Purva Bhadrapada	Aja Ekapada	Jupiter
26	Uttara Bhadrapada	Ahirbudhnya	Saturn
27	Revati	Pushan	Mercury

Notice the pattern in the last column. The nine planetary lords repeat in the same order three times: Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury. That repeating sequence is the backbone of the Vimshottari dasha, which divides a 120-year span of life into planetary periods beginning from the nakshatra the Moon occupied at birth.

The Astronomy Behind the Story

The Sidereal Month: About 27.3 Days

Measured against the fixed stars, the Moon returns to the same position after about 27.32 days. Astronomers call this the sidereal month. Divide the Moon's path into 27 equal parts, and it moves through roughly one part each day. That is the plain observational fact inside the story: one night with each wife.

The Moon's speed is not perfectly even. Because its orbit is slightly elliptical, it covers roughly 12 to 15 degrees a day, so its stay in a nakshatra is a little shorter or longer than a day. The panchang gives the exact times.

Each Nakshatra Spans 13°20′

A full circle of 360 degrees divided by 27 gives 13 degrees 20 minutes per nakshatra. Each is further divided into four padas (quarters) of 3°20′, giving 27 × 4 = 108 padas in all. Twelve rashis (signs) of 30 degrees each overlay the same circle, so every rashi holds exactly nine padas, or two and a quarter nakshatras.

Why 27, and the 28th Nakshatra Abhijit

Because the sidereal month is closer to 27⅓ days than to 27, some early lists added a twenty-eighth mansion, Abhijit, marked by the bright star Vega. The Atharvaveda's list of nakshatras includes it. Abhijit lies well north of the Moon's path, however, and later systems settled on 27 equal divisions. Abhijit survives as a short span taken from the end of Uttara Ashadha and the beginning of Shravana, still used in some muhurta calculations.

Phases Follow a Different Clock

Here the story needs a careful note. The Moon's waxing and waning do not depend on which nakshatra it is in. Phases come from the changing angle between the Sun, Earth and Moon, and they repeat every 29.53 days, the synodic month. During that time the Earth has moved along its own orbit, so the Moon needs about two extra days to line up with the Sun again.

That is why a full moon falls in a different nakshatra each month, moving roughly two nakshatras along each time. The myth joins two real cycles into one image: the Moon's journey through the 27 wives, and its monthly loss and return of light.

Rohini and the Star Aldebaran

Rohini is marked by Aldebaran, the bright orange-red eye of the Bull in the constellation Taurus, set among the Hyades star cluster. It is one of only a few first-magnitude stars that lie close to the Moon's path, and at certain periods the Moon passes directly in front of it, hiding it for a while (an event astronomers call an occultation). Its name fits: rohini means "the red one."

In Jyotisha, Rohini's ruling planet is the Moon itself, and Taurus, the sign that contains Rohini, is where the Moon is said to be exalted. It is easy to see why the storytellers chose Rohini as the one the Moon loved most.

Other nakshatras can also be matched to familiar stars. Krittika is the Pleiades, Ardra is Betelgeuse, Punarvasu is Castor and Pollux, Magha is Regulus, Chitra is Spica, Swati is Arcturus, Jyeshtha is Antares, and Shravana is Altair.

Nakshatras in Vedic Astronomy

The nakshatras are among the oldest astronomical ideas in India. The Rigveda's wedding hymn (10.85) speaks of Soma placed among the nakshatras, and the Yajurveda texts list them with their deities for use in ritual. Because Vedic rituals had to be performed at the right time, priests needed a reliable sky calendar, and the Moon's steady movement through the nakshatras gave them one.

The earliest surviving Indian text devoted to timekeeping is the Vedanga Jyotisha, attributed to the sage Lagadha and preserved in Rigvedic and Yajurvedic versions. It uses the nakshatras, together with the positions of the Sun and Moon, to build a five-year cycle for fixing the times of sacrifices. Scholars disagree on its date; estimates based on the solstice positions it describes often place it in the late second millennium BCE, while others argue for a later date.

One detail shows how long the nakshatras have been observed. The older Vedic lists begin with Krittika, while later lists begin with Ashwini. The starting point shifted because of precession, the slow wobble of the Earth's axis that moves the equinox against the stars by about one degree every 72 years. Indian astronomy tracks the nakshatras against the stars themselves (a sidereal zodiac), which today differs from the tropical zodiac used in Western astrology by about 24 degrees.

How Nakshatras Are Used Today

Naming a Child

At the namakarana ceremony, many families choose a name beginning with the syllable assigned to the pada of the child's birth nakshatra. For Ashwini, for example, the four padas are traditionally given the syllables Chu, Che, Cho and La. The janma nakshatra also appears in horoscope matching for marriage, and in South India many families celebrate a "star birthday" on the day the Moon returns to one's birth nakshatra in the month of birth.

Muhurta

Choosing an auspicious time for a wedding, griha pravesh or the start of a journey depends heavily on the day's nakshatra. Nakshatras are grouped by nature: Rohini and the three "Uttara" nakshatras are called dhruva, or fixed, and are favoured for lasting beginnings such as laying foundations. The relationship between the day's nakshatra and one's birth nakshatra, called tarabala, is also checked.

The Names of the Months

Every month of the Hindu lunar calendar takes its name from the nakshatra near which its full moon falls:

Month	Nakshatra of the full moon
Chaitra	Chitra
Vaishakha	Vishakha
Jyeshtha	Jyeshtha
Ashadha	Purva / Uttara Ashadha
Shravana	Shravana
Bhadrapada	Purva / Uttara Bhadrapada
Ashvin	Ashwini
Kartik	Krittika
Margashirsha	Mrigashira
Pausha	Pushya
Magha	Magha
Phalguna	Purva / Uttara Phalguni

So every time we say Kartik Purnima or Shravan Somvar, we are naming one of Chandra's wives.

Festivals Fixed by Nakshatras

Many festivals are timed by the nakshatra as well as the tithi:

• Krishna Janmashtami: tradition holds that Shri Krishna was born at midnight on Ashtami under Rohini nakshatra, and many devotees look for the two together. See our Janmashtami guide.
• Onam: Kerala's great festival culminates on Thiruvonam, the Malayalam name for Shravana nakshatra, in the month of Chingam. Read more in the deeper meaning of Onam.
• Karthigai Deepam: lamps are lit across Tamil Nadu when the Moon is in Krittika in the month of Karthigai.
• Arudra Darshanam: Shiva as Nataraja is honoured under Ardra, the nakshatra of Rudra, in the month of Margazhi.
• Thaipusam: devotees of Murugan celebrate under Pushya (Poosam) in the month of Thai.
• Rama Navami: Valmiki's Ramayana describes Shri Rama's birth on Navami under Punarvasu.

Symbolism and Lessons

Fairness is a sacred duty. Chandra's fault was not love for Rohini but a broken promise and the neglect of those who depended on him. Any parent, teacher or leader can hear the warning: favouritism wounds, and the wounds come back.

Private faults have public effects. When the Moon faded, the plants withered and the world suffered. The story treats personal conduct and cosmic order as connected, a theme that runs throughout the idea of dharma.

Consequences may soften, but they don't disappear. Shiva did not erase the curse. He turned a final ending into a cycle. This is a realistic picture of grace: sincere repentance does not always undo the past, but it can make it bearable.

No darkness is permanent. Every Amavasya is followed by a returning crescent. For countless devotees, the waxing Moon is a monthly reminder that loss is not the end of the story.

What was humbled is honoured. Shiva wears on his head the very Moon that had been cursed and diminished. The crescent in his hair is a symbol of Mahadev's compassion for all who turn to him. You can read more about Shiva's place among the great deities in The Eternal Trinity of Hinduism.

Why This Matters

A formula gets forgotten and a chart gets lost, but a story is told to children, sung at festivals and painted on temple walls, crossing thousands of years without depending on any single manuscript. Tucked inside this one, like a seed inside fruit, is a precise observation:

The Moon returns to the same stars every 27.3 days, passing through 27 regions of the sky.

The ancients knew. They just chose to remember it as poetry.

A Final Thought

The next time you see the Moon, full, half, or a thin silver crescent at dawn, pause for a second. Notice which bright star is near it. Tonight it may be Rohini or Chitra; in a week, another sister entirely.

And doesn't it make you wonder:

• How were our ancestors able to map the sky so precisely, over so many years, that a pattern as subtle as a 27.3-day cycle could emerge?
• More importantly, why were they doing it? What was their thinking, their intention, behind such a long, patient study of the heavens?
• And why did they choose to pass it down as stories for everyone, instead of recording it in a form that only a few could ever understand?

Maybe that, too, is part of the wisdom they left behind, for us to find.