Tara and the Child of the Moon

The kings of the lunar line traced their family back to the Moon himself, and the Vishnu Purana begins their history with a story that does the Moon no credit.

Soma was the son of the sage Atri. Brahma had made him sovereign of the plants, of the Brahmanas and of the stars. That was a wide kingdom, and Soma crowned it by performing the Rajasuya, the great sacrifice of a king. The glory of it went to his head. He became arrogant, and he carried off Tara, the wife of Brihaspati.

Brihaspati was the teacher and priest of the gods. He asked for his wife back, and Soma refused.

Brahma himself commanded it. The holy sages came and reasoned with him. Soma would not give her up.

Then the worlds took sides.

Ushanas, the teacher of the Asuras, had an old rivalry with Brihaspati. "I stand with Soma," he said, and where their teacher went the Asuras followed. Jambha and Kujambha came, and all the Daityas and Danavas with them.

Rudra took the other side. He had studied under Angiras, Brihaspati's father, and he would not desert a fellow student. Indra and the whole host of the gods stood with him.

So a war was fought over one woman, and it was named after her: the Tarakamaya, the war for Tara. The gods, led by Rudra, hurled their weapons at the Asuras, and the Asuras gave back as good as they got. The Earth shook to her centre. At last she went to Brahma and begged for protection.

Brahma came between the armies. He ordered Ushanas and his demons to stop, and Rudra and his gods to stop, and they obeyed him. Then he made Soma give Tara back to her husband.

Tara came home, and Brihaspati saw that she was going to have a child.

"You shall not carry it in my house," he said.

She obeyed him. She gave birth, and she laid the baby down in a clump of tall munja grass.

The child shone. From the moment he was born his radiance dimmed the light of every god who looked at him. Brihaspati saw him and was charmed. Soma saw him and was charmed too.

"He is mine," said Brihaspati.

"He is mine," said Soma.

The gods could not settle it. Only one person knew the truth, so they turned to Tara. "Whose son is he?"

Tara was ashamed, and she said nothing. They asked again and again, and she stayed silent.

Then the child himself grew angry. "Tell them who my father is," he said, "or I will lay a curse on you that will teach every woman after you to speak the truth."

Brahma stepped in a third time. He calmed the boy. Then he turned to Tara and spoke gently.

"Tell me, daughter. Is this the child of Brihaspati, or of Soma?"

"Of Soma," said Tara, and her face burned.

The Moon's face lit up. He caught the boy in his arms. "Well done, my son. You are wise indeed."

So the boy was named Budha, the one who knows. In the sky he is the planet Mercury.

Budha married Ila, and their son was Pururavas, the king who loved the heavenly Urvashi. From Pururavas came Nahusha and Yayati and all the kings of the lunar line.

The Rigveda has a short hymn of seven verses about a Brahman's wife who was taken from him and returned. It names no Tara. It does not say who took her. Reading it after the Purana, you may be surprised by who comes out of it best.

The hymn opens with an outcry. A wrong has been done to a Brahman, and the first to protest are the oldest powers in the world: the boundless Sea, Matarishvan, the fierce-glowing Fire, and the heavenly Waters, the first-born of the sacred order. All of them cry out against it.

Then comes the line that matters.

"King Soma, first of all, gave back the Brahman's wife, and he did it without reluctance."

Here Soma takes no one away. He is the first to restore her. The other gods follow his lead and turn the return into a ceremony. Mitra and Varuna invite her home. Agni, as the priest, takes her by the hand and leads her.

The hymn says she did not wait for a herald to bring her. And it lets us hear what the gods of old said about her, and the seven sages who sat at their austerities.

"A Brahman's wife is a fearsome thing when another leads her home. She plants disorder in the highest heaven."

The husband is named near the end. "Through him Brihaspati got back his wife," the poet says, "as the gods got back the ladle that Soma brought."

So the gods restored her, the hymn concludes, and men gave her back as well. Kings who kept their word returned the Brahman's wedded wife. Having done so they were freed from guilt. They shared the fullness of the earth and their rule spread wide.