#PurvaAshadha #Nakshatra is the 20th Nakshatra as per Hindu #astrology in #Sagittarius #constellation.

#Purvashadha is ruled by the Waters ( #Apas). Ap (áp-) is the Vedic Sanskrit term for “ #water.

Apas is also the Avestan language term for “the waters” and Āb (plural Ābān) is the Middle Persian-language form. The ape zaothra ceremony — the culminating rite of the Yasna service (which is in turn the principal act of worship) — is literally for the “strengthening of the waters. The Indo-Iranian word also survives as the Persian word for water, āb, e.g. in Punjab (from panj-āb “five waters”). In Tamil, Ap means water, and has references in poetry.

In the #Rigveda, several hymns are dedicated to “the waters” (āpas): 7.49, 10.9, 10.30, 10.47. In the oldest of these, 7.49, the waters relate to the drought of Indra. Agni, the god of fire, has a close association with water and is often referred to as Apām Napāt “offspring of the waters”. In #Vedicastrology, the female deity #Apah is the presiding deity of the Purva Ashadha asterism, meaning “first of the aṣāḍhā”, with aṣāḍhā “the invincible one” being the name of the greater constellation.

In the most celebrated hymn of creation — Nasadiya Sutktha which occurs in the Tenth Book of Rig Veda, as also in the Vak Suktha (RV.10.8.125) and in the Hiranya-garbha Suktha (RV. 10.121 ) the terms Salila and Apah represent Great Waters or the primeval waters or the primeval matter of creation. They stand for the manifest as also for the un-manifest primeval matter: Prakrti or Vak or Aditi or Viraj.

The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, refers to water as the first creation. In the be-ginning there was only a creator from whom the water formed, from it, the foam was formed- Prajāpatirvā idamagra āsīt / tasmāt puruṣāttaptāpo jāyante, apāṁ taptānāṁ pheno jāyate (VI-1.3)

Apam Napat is a deity in the Indo-Iranian pantheon associated with water. In Yasht 19 of the Zoroastrian Avesta Apąm Napāt appears as the creator of mankind. However, since in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazdā is venerated as supreme creator, this function of Apąm Napāt has become reduced.

The Abzu or Apsu is the name for fresh water deity in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Abzu (apsû) is also depicted as a deity in the Babylonian creation epic.

Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called abzu (apsû). Typical in religious washing, these tanks were like Judaism’s mikvot, the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches.
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