The Pleiades and the Seven Sages

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The Pleiades and the Seven Sages

 

In the Indus script, numerals are marked by repeating a short vertical

stroke the required number of times. The pictograms of 'six' (six short

strokes divided to two lines) and (on its left side) 'fish' together

form a syntactic unit (Fig. 13f). It corresponds to the compound

aru-meen 'six-star' occurring in Old Tamil texts and denoting the

asterism of the Pleiades. This constellation was the first one in the

ancient Indian star calendar whose conjunction with the sun at the

vernal equinox marked the new year around the 23rd century B.C.

 

20. The six or seven ladies (the Pleiades?) on an Indus seal.

 

The Pleiades hold a prominent place as the mothers or wet nurses of the

newborn infant in one of the most ancient and central Hindu myths, that

of the birth of the war-god Rudra/Skanda, who evidently represents,

among other things, the victorious rising sun (and as vernal sun the new

year). The Pleiades are said to have been the wives of the seven sages,

who are identified with the seven stars of the Great Bear.

 

21. Inscription on seal from Harappa.

 

The Great Bear's Old Tamil name elu-meen 'seven-star' corresponds to

the combination of the pictograms '7' + 'fish', which alone constitutes

the entire text of one finely carved Indus seal (Fig. 21).

 

The Satapatha-Brahmana (2,1,2,4) states that the six Pleiades were

separated from their husbands on account of their infidelity; other

texts specify that only one of the seven wives, Arundhati, remained

faithful and was allowed to stay with her husband: she is the small star

Alcor in the Great Bear, pointed out as a paradigm of marital virtue to

the bride in the Vedic marriage ceremonies.

 

Evidence for the Harappan origin of this myth is provided, among other

things, by Indus seals which show a row of six or seven human figures

(Fig. 20, 22); their female character is suggested by the one long plait

of hair, which to the present day has remained characteristic of the

Indian ladies.

 

22. Amulet from Mohenjo-daro