The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c19.s10.5

v1.c19.s10.5

The Nakṣatras figure early in the myths of Soma and his marriage with them which is recorded in the later Saṁhitās and Brāhmaṇas, and in the ritual they receive occasional offerings, but appear to be of little religious consequence.² The same consideration applies to the seasons, months and half months, the days and nights, and the year,³ or even the night of new moon, that is when the moon is invisible, or the night of full moon, or the period when the moon first appears (*amāvāsyā*, *paurṇamāsī*, *darça*), though the latter three entities are honoured by Atharvan hymns.⁴ More personality is accorded to the moon phases, Anumati, Sinīvālī, Rākā, and Kuhū, which have already been denoted,⁵ and still more to Ekāṣṭakā, a lunar day near the beginning of the year, which is celebrated as being the daughter of Prajāpati, and the mother of Indra.⁶ Such importance, however, as this or any other of the Aṣṭakās,⁷ lunar days in the middle of the fortnight of declining moonlight, may possess, is doubtless really due to connexion with the offerings then made to the Fathers, whose connexion with the moon was doubtless strongly felt, since it is accepted as a dogma in the Upaniṣads.