Chandra

Chandra, also known as Soma, Indu, Atrisuta, Sachihna, Taradhipa and Nishakara, is the Hindu lunar deity. He is also one of the nine planets (Navagraha) and guardians of the directions (Dikpala) in Hinduism.

Quotes

• Iravathan Mahadevan proposes that “the mysterious cult object that you find before the unicorn on the unicorn seals is a filter. (…) Since we know that the unicorn seals were the most popular ones, and every unicorn has this cult object before it, whatever it represents must be part of the central religious ritual of the Harappan religion. We know of one religion whose central religious cult [object] was a filter, that is the soma [cult] of the Indo-Aryans.”131 If this is not an argument for the identity of Vedic and Harappan, I don’t know what is. Yet, Mahadevan dismisses this conclusion citing the well-known arguments that the Vedas know of no cities while Harappa had no horses, so “the only other possibility is that a soma-like cult (…) must have existed in Harappa and that it was taken over by the Indo-Iranians and incoming Indo-Aryans.”
  • Iravatham Mahadevan interviewed by Omar Khan, Chennai, 17-11998,, quoted in Elst, Koenraad (1999). Update on the Aryan invasion debate New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

Rigveda

• Flow on Soma as wealth from four oceans to us, a thousandfold and from every side
  • Rigveda IX.33.6
  • Quoted in Frawley, David. The Rig Veda and the History of India. (2001). Quoted from Frawley, D. The Hindu, 25th June 2002. WITZEL’S VANISHING OCEAN – HOW TO READ VEDIC TEXTS ANY WAY YOU LIKE. A Reply to Michael Witzel’s article “A Maritime Rigveda? How not to read the Ancient Texts”.

• Flow on Soma as peace for us, draw out for our milk an ambrosial juice, and increase the ocean of the hymn.
  • Rigveda IX.61.15
  • Quoted in Frawley, David. The Rig Veda and the History of India. (2001). Quoted from Frawley, D. The Hindu, 25th June 2002. WITZEL’S VANISHING OCEAN – HOW TO READ VEDIC TEXTS ANY WAY YOU LIKE. A Reply to Michael Witzel’s article “A Maritime Rigveda? How not to read the Ancient Texts”.

• Forming the ray from Heaven, you flow through all forms. Soma, as the ocean you overflow. Soma, beloved enter the ocean.
  • Rigveda IX.64.8,17,27
  • Quoted in Frawley, David. The Rig Veda and the History of India. (2001). Quoted from Frawley, D. The Hindu, 25th June 2002. WITZEL’S VANISHING OCEAN – HOW TO READ VEDIC TEXTS ANY WAY YOU LIKE. A Reply to Michael Witzel’s article “A Maritime Rigveda? How not to read the Ancient Texts”.

• To the ocean the Soma drops, like cows to their home, have come to the source of truth.
  • Rigveda IX.66.12
  • Quoted in Frawley, David. The Rig Veda and the History of India. (2001). Quoted from Frawley, D. The Hindu, 25th June 2002. WITZEL’S VANISHING OCEAN – HOW TO READ VEDIC TEXTS ANY WAY YOU LIKE. A Reply to Michael Witzel’s article “A Maritime Rigveda? How not to read the Ancient Texts”.

• Soma stirs the ocean with the winds.
  • Rigveda IX.84.4
  • Quoted in Frawley, David. The Rig Veda and the History of India. (2001). Quoted from Frawley, D. The Hindu, 25th June 2002. WITZEL’S VANISHING OCEAN – HOW TO READ VEDIC TEXTS ANY WAY YOU LIKE. A Reply to Michael Witzel’s article “A Maritime Rigveda? How not to read the Ancient Texts”.

• The king of the river plunges into the sea, lodged in the rivers, he holds to the wave of the waters.
  • Rigveda IX.86.8
  • Quoted in Frawley, David. The Rig Veda and the History of India. (2001). Quoted from Frawley, D. The Hindu, 25th June 2002. WITZEL’S VANISHING OCEAN – HOW TO READ VEDIC TEXTS ANY WAY YOU LIKE. A Reply to Michael Witzel’s article “A Maritime Rigveda? How not to read the Ancient Texts”.

• Soma, as the ecstatic, you were the first to extend the ocean for the Gods.
  • Rigveda IX.107.23
  • Quoted in Frawley, David. The Rig Veda and the History of India. (2001). Quoted from Frawley, D. The Hindu, 25th June 2002. WITZEL’S VANISHING OCEAN – HOW TO READ VEDIC TEXTS ANY WAY YOU LIKE. A Reply to Michael Witzel’s article “A Maritime Rigveda? How not to read the Ancient Texts”.

• We drank soma, we became immortal; we went to the light, we found the gods;
  how could now affect us distress, O Immortal One, how man’s malevolence?
  • Hymn 8.48.3, quoted from Kazanas, N. (2015). Vedic and IndoEuropean studies. Aditya Prakashan. chapter Shamans, Religion, Soma and the

• THERE where the broad-based stone raised on high to press the juices out, O Indra, drink with eager thirst the droppings which the mortar sheds.
• Where, like broad hips, to hold the juice the platters of the press are laid, O Indra, drink with eager thirst the droppings which the mortar sheds.
• There where the woman marks and leans the pestle's constant rise and fall, O Indra, drink with eager thirst the droppings which the mortar sheds.
• Where, as with reins to guide a horse, they bind the churning-staff with cords, O Indra, drink with eager thirst the droppings which the mortar sheds.
  • Rigveda 1.28.1-4
  • in Lal, B. B., & Saraswat, K. S. (2005). The homeland of the Aryans : evidence of Ṛigvedic flora and fauna & archaeology. Aryan Books International.

• SPRUNG from tall trees on windy heights, these rollers transport me as they turn upon the table. Dearer to me the die that never slumbers than the deep draught of Mujavan's own Soma.
  • Rigveda 10.34.1
  • in Lal, B. B., & Saraswat, K. S. (2005). The homeland of the Aryans : evidence of Ṛigvedic flora and fauna & archaeology. Aryan Books International.

• The king of the river plunges into the sea, lodged in the rivers, he holds to the wave of the waters (IX.86.8).

• Soma flows as the first of the rivers (IX.86.12).

• Thus like rivers down to the sea the Soma drops have poured into the chalices (IX.88.6).

• The king of the rivers has put on the vesture. He has mounted the most righteous ship of truth (IX.89.2).

• The ocean roars in the original laws, generating creation as the king of the world (IX.97.40).

• Soma the Moon) stirs the ocean with the winds (IX.84.4).

• You are the all knowing ocean, oh seer, yours are the five directions in the law, you transcend Heaven and Earth, yours are the constellations, flowing Soma, who are the Sun (IX.86.29).

• Flow on Soma as peace for us, draw out for our milk an ambrosial juice, increase the ocean of the hymn (IX.61.15).

• Forming the ray from Heaven, you flow through all forms. Soma, as the ocean you overflow. Cleansing themselves, the living ones, as to the sea, the Soma drops have come to the source of truth. Soma, beloved, enter the ocean (IX.64.8, 17, 27).

• To the ocean the Soma drops, like cows to their home, have come to the source of truth (IX.66.12).79

• The ocean-going angels have flowed to the wise Soma (IX.78.3).80

• Flowing Soma, the Divine King the vast truth, crosses the ocean by the wave (IX.107.15)

• Soma, as the ecstatic, you were the first to extend the ocean for the Gods (IX. 107.23).

• Flow on Soma as the great ocean the Father of the Gods through all the laws (IX.109.2).

• Flow on Soma as wealth from four oceans to us, a thousandfold and from every side (IX.33.6).

• The Soma libations have extended like the oceans (IX.80.1).

• Indra is a fourfold ocean, the support of treasures (X.47.2).

• Which Somas are in the superior region, which are in the inferior region, or which are in Sharyanavat, which are in the well-made Arjikas, which are in the middle of the Pastyas (home regions), or which are among the five peoples (IX.65.22-3).

• I choose the grace of Heaven and Earth, of the mother rivers, and the mountains of Sharyanavat (X.35.2).1

• Indra, dragon-slayer, drink the Soma at Sharyanavat. Flow, oh compassionate Soma, lord of the directions, from Arjika ... Flow, oh Soma, to Indra (IX.113.1-2).