Budha

Budha (बुध) is the Sanskrit word for the planet Mercury. Budha is also a deity. He is also known as Soumya (Sanskrit: सौम्य, lit. son of Moon), Rauhineya and Tunga and is the Nakshatra lord of Ashlesha, Jyeshtha and Revati. Budha as a planet appears in various Hindu astronomical texts in Sanskrit, such as the 5th century Aryabhatiya by Aryabhatta, the 6th century Romaka by Latadeva and Panca Siddhantika by Varahamihira, the 7th century Khandakhadyaka by Brahmagupta, and the 8th century Sisyadhivrddida by Lalla. These texts present Budha as one of the planets and estimate the characteristics of the respective planetary motion. Other texts such as Surya Siddhanta dated to have been complete sometime between the 5th century and 10th century present their chapters on various planets with deity mythologies. The manuscripts of these texts exist in slightly different versions, present Budha's motion in the skies, but vary in their data, suggesting that the text were open and revised over their lives. The texts slightly disagree in their data, in their measurements of Budha's revolutions, apogee, epicycles, nodal longitudes, orbital inclination, and other parameters. For example, both Khandakhadyaka and Surya Siddhanta of Varaha state that Budha completes 17,937,000 revolutions on its own axis every 4,320,000 years, and had an apogee (aphelia) of 220 degrees in 499 CE; while another manuscript of Surya Siddhanta increases the revolutions by 60 to 17,937,060, and the apogee to 220 degrees and 26 seconds. The 1st millennium CE Hindu scholars had estimated the time it took for sidereal revolutions of each planet including Budha, from their astronomical studies, with slightly different results: Budha appears as a deity in Indian texts, often as the son of Soma (a moon god, alternatively known as Chandra) and Tara (wife of Bṛhaspati, the god of Jupiter). He is described as the son of goddess Rohini (a daughter of Daksha) and the god Chandra. Budha had only one offspring, King Pururavas, by his spouse Ila.