Twin Stars : Arundhati and Vashistha

http://www.revivaloftrueindia.com/2013/07/twin-stars-arundhati-and-vashistha.html

Twin Stars : Arundhati and Vashistha

Twin stars observed during marriage ceremony
Thousands of years ago the ancient rishis could identify two tiny spots in the sky as a twin star system. They named it Arundhati-Vasistha.

Mizar is known as Vashista and Alcor is known as Arundhati in traditional Indian astronomy.

The pair is considered to symbolize marriage.Vashistha and Arundhati were a married couple. Arundhati and Vasistha were considered an ideal couple, symbolic of marital fulfillment and loyalty.

During the marriage ceremonies of Hindus, one of the ritual is the groom shows the bride the double stars of Vasishta and Arundhati.

In some Hindu communities, priests conducting a wedding ceremony allude to or point out the constellation as a symbol of the closeness marriage brings to a couple.
Secret behind watching/pointing the stars

In most twin stars system one star is stationary and other rotates around it, while Arundhati and Vashishtha both rotate in synchrony.

To tell that both husband and wife must do all things in sync and that husband must not rotate round the wife or wife should not dance to the tune of her husband, this ritual was made a part of the marriage ceremony.

Arundhati and Vashistha performing Yagna
This is not explained in marriages although the Pandit takes the couple out and shows the twin star.

The greatness of our ancestors / scholars was that they could know that such a twin star system exists and how they rotate even without the telescope.

A point to be noted

Women in India had a higher stature in society. Its Arundhati-Vashistha and not Vashistha-Arundhati. Women had higher respect than men.

arundathi nakshatra

Arundhathi Nakshatra [Star]:

Hindu marriage ceremony has a event where bridegroom shows Arundhati to his wife. Arundhathi is the wife of Rishi Vasishtha. Arundhati was a model wife. She loved and served her husband Vasishtha with all her heart. Astronomically Arundhati (Alcor) is one of the double stars. It is attached to the star Vasishtha (Mizar). Star Vasishtha is more than 10 times brighter than the star Arundhati and it is harder to differentiate Arundhati from Vasishtha. However, like this double Star, the married couple are expected to be together for ever. In fact both the visible stars are the members of saptha rishi mandala (Big Dipper constellation), lying in second position from the tail end.

Arundhati was the wife of sage Vashishtha, one of the seven sages (saptharshis). Agni, the god of fire, lusts for union with the wives of the saptharshis. But it is undoable for him to fulfil this desire. His wife Svaha, therefore impersonates the wives of the rishis and makes love with Agni in their rupas. But it is impossible for her to impersonate Arundhati, the wife of Vashishtha. Her loyalty towards her husband is so strong that no other man can even think otherwise of her. Later when Agni and Svaha bears a son, the six rishis separate themselves from their wives doubting their chastity. But Arundhthi’s chastity was unquestionable.

Arundhati along with the sapthrshi according to the Hindu belief are the seven bright stars (saptharshis) and the slightly dimmer star Alocor (Arundhathi) towards the star Mizar (Vashistha) seen in the Ursa major constellation.

It is this unremarkable loyalty and love towards her husband that makes her an ideal to be followed for the newly-weds. So for a story first told in atime when wives are prescribed the practice of ‘pativrathya’, there is no moment better than in the marriage itself; to impact the idea of unwavered faith and intimacy between them, in their minds.

http://www.hindu-blog.com/2011/10/story-of-arundhati-wife-of-sage.html

Arundhati, wife of Sage Vasishta, is famous for her chastity, piety and single-minded devotion for her husband. Due to her devoutness and faithfulness, she became a star in the sky known as Arundhati Nakshatra. Arundhati was the daughter of Kardama Prajapati and Devahuti. Mahabharata mentions that there is no one as devout and faithful as Arundhati.
There are many instances in the Puranas when Arundhati rescued people with the power of her chastity and faithfulness.
Legend has it that once there was intense drought on earth. Saptarishis who were residing in the Himalayas also were troubled by the famine created by the drought. Arundhati then performed intense Tapas and pleased Shiva and was able to bring rain on earth.
This act earned her the praise of Saptarishis and Devas.
Arundhati left her physical body on earth while performing Tapas on the banks of holy Saraswati River.
Arundhati Nakshatra is located near the Saptarishi Nakshatras. She resides near Vasishta Nakshatra.
It is a practice among certain Hindu communities for the groom to show Arundati Nakshatra to the newly wed bride.
Another belief is that those people who are nearing their death cannot witness Arundathi Nakshatra. It is also believed that if a person is able to witness the Nakshatra then death will not approach him for next six months.

http://i-survive.blogspot.in/2012/01/arundhati-nakshatram-there-is-ceremony.html

Arundhati nakshatram

There is a ceremony in the south indian marriage where the husband takes the wife and shows her the Arundhati vashishta combination. One popular story is that Arundhati was the dedicated wife of sage Vashistha and that is the reason the wife is shown the arundhati star basically to show her the model wife .

But there is also a scientific explanation for this . The star constellation of Arundhati and Vashishta is one in which one star does not revolve around the other instead they both orbit the same center of mass of theirs, and they travel through the cosmos together . So the star constellation is actually a symbolism of how a husband and wife should be . They should both support each other and travel towards a common goal together instead of one being the center and other serving them all along.

Vasishta and Arundhati

Vasishta and Arundhati
I have a faint memory of mother telling me about how rich our culture was. I was a small kid then and my religious education had not yet started. I was not taught any slokas, mantras, songs or anything of that sort till then. My grandmother though used to tell us stories from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. They were still stories then. This one bit I remember about my mother telling me.
I think there was some discussion about how the Wright brothers had invented a flying machine. My mother listened to the whole narration of how 2 fellows who were working in a bicycle shop had invented the flying machine, which started the aviation revolution! She dismissed it saying, “Ravana kidnapped Sita in a Pushpaka Vimana. Valmiki wrote Ramayana thousands of years ago. The imagination and science of a flying machine was there even then. These people are claiming they have imagined this and done. Hmph!” Considering her belief that Ramayana was a real story (now I am not being a atheist here. Its just my belief. We would be diverting from the real topic now) she thought our ancestors in India were much more learned and cultured than what the West portrays us as of now. A casual remark, yet a distinct memory of my mother. Ever since Indian history has always fascinated me (not as a subject though!).
I was watching a video on Facebook, where a IIT Bombay Alumni was giving a discourse about how rich our Indian History is and what all we knew before our so-called First World nations found out in the 19th and 20th century. It was a nice video where he mentioned about various things among Vasishta and Arundhati.
He explains that there is one star in the Ursa Major or Saptarishi, as it is known in the Indian literature, called Vasishta. According to Indian scriptures, Vasishta was one of the seven Brahmarishis. Vasishta and Arundhati are actually binary stars. The West has now named then Mizar and Alcor. There is an interesting bit of information about this particular pair. Mostly a binary star system has a Primary star and a secondary star, with the later revolving around the former. But this particular Binary star system actually revolved together. He also mentioned about a particular tradition in South India where the husband and wife are asked to see this particular star system after their marriage.
This got me thinking about my marriage ceremony. My wife was very particular in me telling all the slokas properly. I told her I would say if I know the meaning. The pandit who conducted our marriage ceremony, Thiru. Malola Kannan, was more than willing to explain the meaning (much to the displeasure of the guests that the wedding ceremony was taking too long). I remember him telling me the essence of each ritual in the marriage. These little explanations made the marriage more interesting. He explained this particular theory while asking us to look at the general direction of the stars and told us, a husband and wife should be like Vasishta and Arundhati – an ideal couple. No one is supposed to go around the other. Both the husband and wife have to move together to have a good family life.
Small things like these, that our ancestors have kept in our rituals, actually show how forward they were in their thinking. Right from time immemorial, we have been taught that both the man and the wife have EQUAL importance and responsibility in the family. This isn’t something that we have to learn from the west.
My mom was right! 🙂

Twin Stars : Arundhati and Vashistha

Twin stars observed during marriage ceremony
Thousands of years ago the ancient rishis could identify two tiny spots in the sky as a twin star system. They named it Arundhati-Vasistha.

Mizar is known as Vashista and Alcor is known as Arundhati in traditional Indian astronomy.

The pair is considered to symbolize marriage. Vashistha and Arundhati were a married couple. Arundhati and Vasistha were considered an ideal couple, symbolic of marital fulfillment and loyalty.

During the marriage ceremonies of Hindus, one of the ritual is the groom shows the bride the double stars of Vasishta and Arundhati.

In some Hindu communities, priests conducting a wedding ceremony allude to or point out the constellation as a symbol of the closeness marriage brings to a couple.
Secret behind watching/pointing the stars

In most twin stars system one star is stationary and other rotates around it, while Arundhati and Vashishtha both rotate in synchrony.

To tell that both husband and wife must do all things in sync and that husband must not rotate round the wife or wife should not dance to the tune of her husband, this ritual was made a part of the marriage ceremony.

Arundhati and Vashistha performing Yagna
This is not explained in marriages although the Pandit takes the couple out and shows the twin star.

The greatness of our ancestors / scholars was that they could know that such a twin star system exists and how they rotate even without the telescope.