Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A Digit of the Moon is the sixteenth part of a much longer work, entitled 'The Churning of the Ocean of Time', A well-known Hindoo legend recounts how the gods and antigods assembled to churn the ocean of milk for the nectar of immortality. After throwing in herbs of various kinds, they churned it with Mount Mandara, and obtained the nectar, with certain other things, one of which was the Moon, who by the way is often called 'the Lord of Herbs.' But in Sanskrit, the Moon, like the Sun, is a male. Hindoo poets get over this difficulty, when they want a female Moon, by personifying his attributes, or making a part do duty for the whole. Thus, his disc is divided sixteen parts, called 'streaks' or 'digits, ' and a beautiful woman is a 'digit of the moon.'