Moon and His Marriages

Three supreme gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva disguised as monks, came to test Anasuya, the wife of Atri Rishi and demanded that she feed them milk from her breasts. The great Anasuya with her spirutal powers got to know the truth and and turned these three gods into babies and feed them as they desired. Immensely pleased and impressed with Anasuya, lords of the universe blessed her to have great children. Shiva's blessing caused the birth of Durvasas rishi, Vishnu's blessing resulted in the birth of Dattatreya, and Brahma's boon caused the Moon's birth. The Moon was then worshipped by all the celestials. He later married all the twenty seven daughters of Daksha and they were non other than twenty seven constellations or nakshatras. Out of his twenty seven wives Moon preferred only Rohini, and always remained with her. Other twenty-six sisters pleaded Moon to spend equal time with all of them. But Moon ignored them and with no option left these twenty-six sisters complained to their father, Daksha, who tried twice to reason with Moon, his son in law, but Moon ignored it as well. Daksha then lost his temper and cursed the Moon to suffer with consumption. Every day the Moon started to wane, losing his glow and no remedy could cure him. The gods also got alarmed at the possibility life on Earth will be affected without Moon, approached Daksha and asked him to modify his curse so that life continues on Earth. Daksha then modified his curse on condition that Moon has to spend one day with each of his wives and the consumption will effect him for fourteen days and in next fourteen days he will gain back his form. Thus, the Moon now waxes and wanes in cycle of twenty eight days and he visits each of his wife once a month, for one day. Moon had no children by his twenty-seven wives, but he have four sons by another wife, named Manohara. But most famous son of the Moon is the planet Mercury. There is some great story of moon and manohara written somewhere

Mercury's Birth

Mercury is the son of the Moon. Moon conquered the three worlds and performed the Rajasuya, the sacrifice which gives lordship. Many gods and goddesses served him; having achieved this glory he became arrogant. The Moon was the chief disciple of Jupiter, the guru of the celestials, and was also the favorite of Tara, Jupiter's wife, who was attracted to him by his character and beauty. Once when Jupiter was away Tara (manohara) and Moon eloped. Jupiter returned home, found his wife gone, soon discovered her whereabouts, and several times sent messages to the Moon requesting his wife's return. The Moon, however, repeatedly refused to comply with these requests, maintaining that Tara had accompanied him of her own accord and would leave only when she was satiated with him. These replies so infuriated Jupiter that he communicated them to his disciple Indra, the chief of gods who sent an ultimatum to the Moon. When Moon refused to yield, Indra began a war. Venus and the asuras (demonic celestials) took the side of Moon in this war, because of the ongoing enmity between Jupiter and Venus, while Lord Shiva, took the side of the devas. The war dragged on so long that the Great Rishis began to fear that the end of the world was near. Brahma asked Moon to return Tara . This the Moon did, but he returned her pregnant. When Jupiter learned of this he was furious, and asked her for abortion. Tara had to did that but the baby which was a boy survived and he was radiant like gold. Seeing the child's splendor both Jupiter and Moon hankered after him, and both claimed paternity, demanding that Tara declare the true father's name. Tara was too embarrassed to speak. Finally, when Brahma questioned her in private she admitted that the Moon was the father of that wonderful child, who was the planet Mercury.

I believe all know how Mars was born.... i was told this story when i started learning..... its currently airing on mahadev too....


Daksha, the king of entire earth once organized the greatest yagna and invited all gods, demigods, sages, and other famous personalities. He however did not invite Lord Shiva, his own son-in-law. When Sati, Lord Shiva's wife heard about this yagna she left to attend it inspite her husband's objections, but when she arrived there her father Daksha insulted Shiva. This was unbearable for Sati and she gave up her life. On hearing the events that had taken place at Daksha's yagna, Lord Shiva's wrath reached its boiling point and in rage he pulled a hair from his matted locks and threw it on the ground and it became a fiery being of unequal strength with many heads and eyes, and thousands arms and legs. His mare sight was enough to strike unparallel fear in strongest of hearts. Lord Shiva named him Virabhadra and commanded him to destroy Daksha and his yagna and anyone who tries to stop him. Virabhadra with Shiva's army of spirits and goblins reached the venue of the yagna and seeing him and his army all started to run in different directions to save themselves. Virabhadra destroyed Daksha's sacrifice, and then killed Daksha. Virabhadra returned to Shiva who was extremely pleased with him, and granted him a permanent place in the heavens as a planet and named him Angaraka (Mars), the fiercest of planets. As Lord Shiva directly produced Mars or Angaraka's, he is naturally referred as son of Lord Shiva just like his other son Karttikeya and it is said that those afflicted by Mars should worship Karttikeya.ury is the son of the Moon. Moon conquered the three worlds and performed the Rajasuya, the sacrifice which gives lordship. Many gods and goddesses served him; having achieved this glory he became arrogant. The Moon was the chief disciple of Jupiter, the guru of the celestials, and was also the favorite of Tara, Jupiter's wife, who was attracted to him by his character and beauty. Once when Jupiter was away Tara (manohara) and Moon eloped. Jupiter returned home, found his wife gone, soon discovered her whereabouts, and several times sent messages to the Moon requesting his wife's return. The Moon, however, repeatedly refused to comply with these requests, maintaining that Tara had accompanied him of her own accord and would leave only when she was satiated with him. These replies so infuriated Jupiter that he communicated them to his disciple Indra, the chief of gods who sent an ultimatum to the Moon. When Moon refused to yield, Indra began a war. Venus and the asuras (demonic celestials) took the side of Moon in this war, because of the ongoing enmity between Jupiter and Venus, while Lord Shiva, took the side of the devas. The war dragged on so long that the Great Rishis began to fear that the end of the world was near. Brahma asked Moon to return Tara . This the Moon did, but he returned her pregnant. When Jupiter learned of this he was furious, and asked her for abortion. Tara had to did that but the baby which was a boy survived and he was radiant like gold. Seeing the child's splendor both Jupiter and Moon hankered after him, and both claimed paternity, demanding that Tara declare the true father's name. Tara was too embarrassed to speak. Finally, when Brahma questioned her in private she admitted that the Moon was the father of that wonderful child, who was the planet Mercury.