Description of Goddess Krittika

A few references of Krittika are found in the Vedic texts. The Krttikas, Amba, Dula, Nitatni, Abhrayanti, Meghayanti, Varsayanti and Cupunika by name are yoked in bonds of fellowship with Prajapati. It may be noted that Middle-Eastern influence e through trade contact is apparent in the names viz. Amba, Duta, Cupunika and Nitatni. The Krttikas are naksatras, and they, along 65 n 63 335 64 Kena-upanishad IV.1. Manava-grihya-sutra II : 13:6. 65 Taittiriya-samhita IV.4.51.

with Agni are the radiances of Agni, of Prajapati, of the 66 290 67 creator, of Soma. They are supplicated to be easy of invocation. The Krittikas are regarded as the asterism of Agni: 68 These stars are inalienably associated with rainfall and with ancestral rites; they usher in the proper season for obsequious rites in the Later Vedic ritual texts. Their appearance signifies the end of the rainy season, the advent of autumn, when the annual ancestral rites were performed before the harvest was collected. Later mythology connects them with Agni whose seed in the infant Skanda was reared by them, whence his name Karttikeya. Even in the early Vedic mythology the Krttikas are the mother-goddesses who are associated with rainfall as the names of some of them clearly signify. 66 Taittiriya-samhita IV.4.10.1. 67 Atharva-veda XXX.3 7.2. 68 Satapatha-brahmana 2.12.1. i