Shatabhishak/Sadhayam captured in Aquarius using mobile astrophotography
Shatabhishak, Shatataraka or Sadhayam is the 24th nakshatra in Hindu astronomy. Indian zodiac: 6°40' — 20° Kumbha Raashi.
In Hindu Mythology, this lunar mansion is represented by the ox cart symbol. The reigning god is Lord Varuna. The ruler of oceans and seas. His vehicle is makara.
Makara is of great significance in Hinduism and plays an important role in many famous incidents mentioned in Hindu scriptures. It is the vahana of Goddess Ganga as an aquatic animal with the body of a crocodile or Makara and she is believed to travel from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal atop a crocodile.
It is important to note that makara as vehicle is not exactly a crocodile it has the body of a crocodile, tail of a fish and sometimes an head with a trunk too.
As an extension, it is interesting to see about Makaradhwaja, son of Hanuman.
Story of Makaradhwaja:
In the Krittivasi Ramayana, Ahiravan was the ruler of Patala Lokha, or the netherworld. He was the brother of Ravana, was a master of magic and illusion, often confusing his enemies by showing them illusions and making them hallucinate. He was a staunch devotee of Goddess Mahamaya.
After the death of Indrajeet at the hands of Lakshmana, Ahiravan was instructed by Ravana to trick Rama and Lakshmana. Vibhishan, well acquainted with the ways of Ahiravan, comes to know about their plan. He warns Hanuman to keep an eye for Ahiravan near Rama and Lakshmana.
However, Ahiravan successfully kidnaps Rama and Lakshmana to Patala Lokha disguising himself as Vibhishana.
Patala Lokha was observed to be a world of reverse flow. It is a world where all the rules of nature are completely opposite to what we have in our world. Life progressed in the reverse over there. Old men emerged from their funeral pyres and slowly became younger and younger until they were mere infants. Fire, instead of burning things, was used to cool things down over there.
So when Lord Hanuman reached the gates of Patala Lokha to rescue them, Makaradhwaja who was appointed as the guard of the Palace by Ahiravana, declared himself as the son of Hanuman.
Hanuman was shocked to hear this and said that, I am myself the Hanuman but Makaradhwaja could not be his son, as he was celibate since birth. However, Hanuman then meditated to seek truth to see the cause of Makardhwaja’s birth.
Makaradhwaja’s birth:
After burning Lanka with the fire on his tail, when Hanuman had taken a dip, a drop of his sweat falls in the mouth of a huge Makara. This creature gets caught by the people of Patala Lokha, and they find Makaradhwaja when they cut open the crocodile’s stomach. Ahiravana, seeing Makaradhwaja’s intelligence and strength, makes him the guard of his palace.
Makaradhwaja asks Lord Hanuman for his blessings, however, he said to Hanuman, that he will have to fight him to enter Patala, as he cannot betray Ahiravana, his mentor. Hanuman defeats Makaradhwaja in a duel and binds him to proceed further to ultimately kill Ahiravana and rescue Rama & Lakshamana. How Lord Hanuman becomes Panchamukhi Anjaneya to kill Ahiravana is another very interesting story that you can look up and read. Later on, upon Rama’s advice Lord Hanuman installed Makaradhwaja, as King of Patala before returning to Lanka, to continue the war with Ravana.
Let us have a look at the Sadhayam Nakshatra captured as partof Aquarius constellation.
Gamma Aquarii, or γ Aquarii, with an apparent visual magnitude of 3.849 is the main star that represents this lunar mansion. It is a binary system star.
Yes, all these pictures I sat and annotated last year, but then I am kind of redoing the whole stuff again now with respect to the Hindu Nakshatra system. Next , we will see Poorataadhi or PurvaBhadrapada. Until then, have a great day :-)
