Varaha Purana 35.2: Adhyaya 35, Shloka 2
The Account of Soma’s Decline and Restoration, and the Paurṇamāsī Observance
Pūrva Bhāga · Cosmology and Genealogical Catalogues (Nakṣatra–Lunar Associations)
सप्तविंशति याः कन्या दाक्षायण्यः प्रकीर्तिताः । सोमपत्न्योऽतिमन्तव्यास्तासां श्रेष्ठा तु रोहिणी ॥ ३५.२ ॥
saptaviṁśati yāḥ kanyā dākṣāyaṇyaḥ prakīrtitāḥ | somapatnyo 'timantavyās tāsāṁ śreṣṭhā tu rohiṇī || 35.2 ||
saptaviMshati yAH kanyA dAkShAyaNyaH prakIrttitAH | somapatnyo.atimantavyAstAsAM shreShThA tu rohiNi || 35.2 ||
ダクシャの娘として称えられる二十七人の乙女たちは、ソーマ（月神）の妃たちであると理解すべきである。その中でローヒニーが最も श्रेष्ठ（すぐれた者）と見なされる。
Sandhi Notes
- सोमपत्न्योऽतिमन्तव्याः = सोमपत्न्यः + अति-मन्तव्याः (visarga sandhi)
- अति-मन्तव्याः treated as अव्ययीभाव (अति + मन्तव्य)
Varāha
Curious
Who are Dakṣa’s twenty-seven daughters in relation to Soma, and which is preeminent among them?
Cosmic order is relational: the moon’s passage through 27 stations structures lived dharma (timing of rites).
Attend to lunar/nakṣatra timing in observances; understand myth as a mnemonic for calendrical science.
The 27 wives of Soma encode the nakṣatra-cycle through which lunar time ‘moves’; Rohiṇī’s preeminence signals the moon’s special affinity with a particular stellar station, grounding ritual calendrics in myth.
Time (kāla) as a cosmic regulator: Soma’s relational network mirrors the ordered manifestation of prakṛti as measurable cycles; devotion/ritual depends on this intelligible order.
Varāha Purāṇa 35 (Soma–nakṣatra wives narrative)
FAQs
It reflects a common Purāṇic synthesis of genealogy and astral taxonomy, identifying the 27 nakṣatras as Dakṣa’s daughters and as Soma’s consorts—an influential framework for later calendrical and astronomical traditions in South Asia.
No geographic location is named in this verse; the content is primarily cosmological/astral, focused on Soma and the personified nakṣatras.
The verse is descriptive rather than prescriptive; its main function is classificatory—establishing a hierarchy among the nakṣatras by naming Rohiṇī as foremost.
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