Chandra, the moon god, married all twenty-seven daughters of the sage-king Daksha – stars and constellations personified as his wives – but the arrangement quickly revealed a problem that would permanently shape the moon’s appearance.
A husband who couldn’t hide his favorite
Among his twenty-seven wives, Chandra showed overwhelming favoritism toward Rohini, neglecting his other wives almost entirely and devoting nearly all his attention and affection to her alone.
A father who noticed and objected
Daksha, hearing repeated complaints from his other daughters about their neglect, warned Chandra repeatedly to treat all his wives equally. When Chandra continued to ignore the warnings and kept favoring Rohini, Daksha cursed him to gradually waste away and lose his light entirely.
A curse softened, not lifted
As Chandra began withering under the curse, the devas and sages, worried about the loss of moonlight, pleaded with Daksha to reconsider. Daksha, unwilling to fully revoke a curse already given, modified it instead: rather than fading away permanently, Chandra would wane and then wax again in a repeating cycle, losing his light for roughly half of each month before recovering it in the other half. This compromise is offered as the mythological explanation for the moon’s monthly phases – a punishment for favoritism that was permanently built into the sky rather than fully undone.