आर्द्रा
Ārdrā Nakṣatra
Rudra, the storm god, was born crying, and his name means the one who wept. The Brahmana calls this star Rudra's two arms. Its later name, Ardra, means the wet one, and Varahamihira says the rain comes without fail when the Sun enters it. The Rigveda calls Rudra the best physician among physicians.
At a Glance
The Name
Ardra means wet, moist, fresh. The word is used of a green branch, of earth after rain, of cloth still damp, and of a heart that is soft. The teachers hear in it both the god's tears and the rain the star brings.
The Taittiriya Brahmana does not use the name Ardra. It calls the star the two Arms, and says they are Rudra's. Dr Arjun Pai notes that the old name Bahu fits the sky, since Betelgeuse marks the shoulder of the hunter Orion.
In Tamil the star is Thiruvathirai, and Dr Pai points out that only two of the twenty-seven stars carry the honour Thiru, holy, in front of their names. The other is Thiruvonam, Shravana.
Where the Star Stands
Ardra runs from Gemini 6 degrees 40 minutes to Gemini 20 degrees. Mrigashira and Punarvasu, on either side of it, are split across the edges of the sign.
मृगशिरो ऽर्धं रौद्रं पुनर्वसोर् अंशकत्रयं मिथुनः ॥
mṛgaśiro 'rdhaṃ raudraṃ punarvasor aṃśakatrayaṃ mithunaḥ ||
Translation — Half of Mrigashira, Rudra's star, and three quarters of Punarvasu: these are Gemini.
Explanation — Varahamihira marks out each sign by the stars inside it. Gemini takes the second half of Mrigashira, all of Ardra and the first three quarters of Punarvasu. Ardra is the only one of the three that the sign holds whole. Varahamihira calls it raudra, Rudra's, and not by its own name.
— Bṛhat Saṃhitā 102.2ab (Kern; Tripāṭhī 101.2ab) — the stars that make Gemini
None of the fourteen exact points of exaltation or fall lands inside Ardra. Its fourth quarter is a pushkara navamsha, and the pushkara degree of Gemini, 18 degrees, lies in that same quarter.
The star that marks Ardra is disputed. Most modern lists give Betelgeuse, the red star at Orion's shoulder, but on the Lahiri reckoning Betelgeuse stands at Gemini 4 degrees, inside Mrigashira. Gamma Geminorum, Alhena, stands at Gemini 14 degrees 22 minutes, inside Ardra, and some lists give that instead. The Surya Siddhanta's figures put Ardra's marker star near the start of the star and nine degrees south of the Sun's path. Sirius, the archer of the old story, stands at Gemini 19 degrees 20 minutes, at the far end of the star.
The Sun passes through Ardra from about 22 June to 6 July, the first two weeks of the Indian monsoon.
A Gem and a Tear
Muhurta Chintamani gives every star a shape and a count of stars. Ardra has one star, and its shape is a mani, a gem. The later tables give a teardrop, and some give a human head. Dr Arjun Pai takes the gem to be a diamond, a rough stone that shines only after it has been cut and polished. Vic DiCara and Kapiel Raaj read the teardrop as the god's tears and the rain of the storm.
Varahamihira fixes the karma class, the body part, the varna class, the earthquake circle and the direction of this star, and the Brahmana fixes its god and its old name. The guna, the gender, the colours and the pada syllables come only from the later tables. The shakti name yatna is David Frawley's reading.