Luoxini Xingxu

Rohiṇí is one of the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha, each associated with a lunar asterism, and the favorite wife of Chandra, the Moon. In the poem’s explanatory notes, her story accounts for the Moon’s changing brightness: a curse brought on by Chandra’s preference becomes periodic decay and recovery. The notes also identify Rohiṇí with a star group whose principal star is Aldebaran.

Identity and astronomical association

The commentary presents the twenty-seven daughters as personifications of the lunar asterisms and names Rohiṇí among them. It identifies her principal star as Aldebaran and describes the associated lunar mansion as containing five stars. The note’s terminology is not fully consistent: one passage calls Rohiṇí the fourth lunar mansion, while another calls her the ninth Nakshatra. The text supplies both ordinal descriptions without explaining the difference.

The Moon’s favorite and the curse

In the legend recounted in the notes, Chandra is married to all twenty-seven daughters of Daksha but devotes himself so completely to Rohiṇí that he neglects the others. They complain to their father, who repeatedly intervenes. When Chandra continues to favor Rohiṇí, Daksha curses him: the Moon becomes childless and is afflicted with consumption.

The Moon’s changing phases

Chandra’s wives intercede, and Daksha modifies the curse, though he cannot withdraw it altogether. The Moon’s decline is therefore made periodic rather than permanent, alternating with recovery. The commentary presents this alternation as the explanation for the Moon’s successive waning and waxing. Rohiṇí’s significance in the account is thus bound to a contrast between exclusive favor and shared grievance, and between the curse’s lasting force and its mitigation.