BIRTH STARS

             In ancient days, the position of celestial objects was used to mark important events. Weren’t there kings known by their birth stars in the history of Kerala? For example, Chithira Thirunnal, Uthradam Thirunaal ? Do you want to know about birth star?

                                               Birth stars

                   Moon is a prominent figure in the night sky. Moon moves from east to west in its path and revolves round the earth. We see the moon almost all the days because of the spin of the earth. That means it turns 360 degree through its path around the earth in 27 days. It turns 13 ⅓ degrees in one day. It takes a day and night to move 13 ⅓ degrees in its path around the earth. This region which the moon covers in a day is named after the stars and constellations of stars seen located there. Such regions are called birth stars or ‘Jenma nals’ or ‘asterisms’. The time duration the moon spends in this region is the duration of that particular birth star. So there are27 birth stars. Like this moon travels for 27 days and reaches the first position again. By this time duration the moon completes one revolution around the earth. This period is called a lunar month (chandramasam)  
                How is Malayalam months evolved?

             The sun’s apparent path around the earth in a year is called the ecliptic.it is divided into 12 segments. Each segment is named after the major constellations located in each segment. Each segment is 30 degree wide from the viewer. The sun moves through in the segments in the ecliptic from Medam (Aries) to Meenam (Pisces) or from Chingam (Leo) to Karkkidakam (Cancer).When the sun is in the sky we cannot see constellations behind the sun. We can only guess the constellation. The stars seen in the western sky just after the sunset belong to the ‘Rasi’ the segment, in which the sun is and the rasi next to it like that we can see same stars in the rasi, the background in which the sun is and the stars in the rasi next to it, just before the sunrise. We can identify and locate them with the help of the figure .

           When the earth is at ‘A’ the rasi just behind the sun is ‘Dhanu’ (Sagittarius). Earth revolves round the sun by a period of twelve months. The period of 1/12 ^Th part of a year is one month. The period of time the sun spends in this rasi or segments is called that month named after that constellations or rasi. Hence that month is ‘Dhanu’. When the earth moves to the position B the rasiganam in which the sun situates   is ‘Karkidakam’ and that month is ‘Karkidakam’ .When the earth is again at the position after a complete rotation around the sun,’Dhanu’ comes behind the sun. The earth takes 365 days to complete one revolution around the sun by this time; the sun spends 30 degree each in rasi (solar constellations) and passes through all the 12 rasis. It is clear that our feeling of the sun moving among the solar constellations is due to the revolution of the earth. Malayalam months are known after the constellation in which the sun is seen. The sun takes nearly 30 days to across a constellation.

                                                     Njattuvela
               Njattuvela is the position of the Sun. The sun travels for an average of 13 ½ days through a ‘rasi’ or a ‘birth star’. This period is known as the Njattuvela of that particular star. Or the period of time for which the sun appears together with an asterism is a njattuvela. A njattuvela is approximately 13-14 days. Our cultivation methods followed the Njattuvela in the olden days. Rohini Njattuvela was considered suitable for planting  legumes or ‘payaru vargam’,

          Thiruvathira njattuvela occurs in midhunam (Gemini), it can clearly identified with the help of the above diagram.aswathi njattuvela occurs in medam (aries). Thiruvathira Njattuvela was excellent for planting pepper saplings and Atham Njattuvela for plantain cultivation”, says experienced farmers. Elephant Foot Yam (Amorphophallus) (Chena) is supposedly best planted when the moon rises at dusk on the full moon day of the Malayalam month of Kumbham. There is even an old adage which says “KumbhapparaKudam pole”meaning the produce of Kumbham will be plentiful”.Kumbhappara means the full moon of Kumbham. So it goes on to tell us that the elephant yam planted during Kumbham will be as big as the full moon of the month.