The moon's curse eased at Somnath

The moon had twenty-seven wives, the daughters of Daksha who are the stations of the sky, and he spent his nights with one of them, Rohini. The other twenty-six complained to their father, and Daksha cursed his son-in-law to lose his light and die. Chandra faded night by night. Brahma told him that only Shiva could help and sent him to the shore at Prabhas, where the moon bathed in the sea and worshipped for months. Shiva came. A curse spoken by Daksha could not simply be cancelled, but it could be shared out: the moon would dwindle for fifteen nights and be given back his light over the next fifteen, for ever. In thanks Chandra raised a temple of gold to Somanatha, the lord of the moon, and tradition says it was rebuilt in silver by Ravana, in wood by Krishna and in stone by the kings of Gujarat. Somnath counts itself the first of the twelve jyotirlingas.