If on the 5th day of the bright half of Chaitra, the moon appears to the west of the Rohini constellation, the prices of cotton are believed to rise; if to the east, they are said to fall; and if in the same line, the current rates are believed to be likely to continue.[220]
The Bīj (2nd day) and the ninth day of Āshādh (the 9th month of the Gujaratis and the 4th month of the Hindus of the Deccan) falling on a Sunday is a combination that foretells excessive heat. If they fall on Wednesday, intense cold is said to be the result. Their occurring on a Tuesday, threatens absence of rains, and on a Monday, a Thursday or a Friday, foreshadows excessive rainfall.[221]
Thunder on Jeth-Sud-Bīj, or the second day of the bright half of Jyeshtha, is a bad omen and threatens famine.[222]
The spots on the moon have given rise to numerous beliefs, mythological as well as fanciful. One of them is that they are the result of a curse, pronounced by the sage Gautama on Chandra. Indra, the god of rain, was infatuated with the charms of Ahalyā, the wife of Gautama, and with the help of Chandra laid a cunning plot to gain his ignoble object. Accordingly, one night, Chandra set earlier than usual, when Indra assumed the form of a cock and crowed at midnight in order to deceive Gautama into the belief that it was dawn, and therefore his time for going to the Ganges to perform his religious services. The trick was successful, and the holy sage being thus got rid of, Indra assumed the form of Gautama himself and approached Ahalyā, who was surprised to see her husband (as she thought) so quickly returned. The wily god allayed her suspicions by explaining that it was not yet time for the morning ceremonies, and thus enjoyed the favours due to her husband. Gautama, in the meanwhile, finding the water of the Ganges cool and placid, and discovering that it was not yet dawn, returned to his hermitage. On reaching home he detected the treachery of Indra, who tried to escape in the disguise of a tom-cat. The exasperated sage then cursed Indra, Chandra and his wife: Indra to have a thousand sores on his person, Ahalyā to turn into a stone, and Chandra to have a stain on his fair face.[223]
Another mythological story is that Daksha Prajāpati, the son of Brahmā, gave all his twenty-seven daughters in marriage to Chandra, who was inspired with love for one of them only, named Rohini, the most beautiful of them all. The slighted twenty-six sisters complained to their father, Daksha, of Chandra’s preference for Rohini. Daksha in anger cursed Chandra to be attacked by consumption (which is supposed to be the reason of the waning of the moon) and his face to be marred by a stain.[224]
The curse of Gautama and the curse of Daksha are also supposed to be reasons of the waxing and the waning of the moon.
Another belief regarding the moon-spots is that when the head of Ganpati was severed by Shiva’s trident, it flew off and fell into the chariot of the moon. The spots are either the head itself[225] or are due to drops of blood fallen from the flying severed head.[226]
The spots are also said to be explained by the fact of the image of god Krishna or Vishnu[227] residing in the heart of the moon who, as a devotee of Vishnu, holds his image dear to his heart.[228]
The moon is often called mrigānka (lit. deer-marked) and mriga-lānchhana (lit. deer-stained); and a further explanation of the spots in this connection is that the moon-god took into his lap a strayed deer, out of compassion, and thus his lap became stained.[229] Jains believe that in the nether parts of the moon’s vimān or vehicle, there is an image of a deer whose shadow is seen in the spots.[230]
Some persons declare the spots to be a shami tree (prosopis spicigera).[231] The belief of the masses in Gujarat is said to be that the spot on the moon’s disc is the seat of an old woman, who sits spinning her wheel with a goat tethered near her.[232] If the droppings of the goat were to fall on earth, departed souls would return to the earth.[233]