Makara

[UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Makara (devanāgarī: मकर) is a Sanskrit name for a mythical sea-creature in Hinduism, which in early art seems to have been inspired in a crocodile. It is generally depicted as half terrestrial animal (in the frontal part in animal forms of elephant or crocodile or stag, or deer) and in hind part as aquatic animal, in the tail part, as a fish tail or also as seal. He is the vahana (vehicle) of the Ganga (the goddess of river Ganges) and the sea god Varuna. The makara appears in many myths and is endowed with magical powers, especially those related to the fertility of rivers and the sea.

In the Hindu zodiac it represents the astrological sign of Capricorn.

Theosophical view

Makara. There is some difficulty in interpreting this word; nevertheless it contains within itself the clue to its correct interpretation. The letter Ma is equivalent to number five and Kara means hand. Now in Samskrt Tribhuja means a triangle, bhuja or kara (both are synonymous) being understood to mean a [Page 16] side. So, Makara or Pañchakara means a Pentagon.

Makara is the tenth sign and the term "Dasadisa" generally used by Samskrt writers to denote the faces or sides of the universe. The sign in question is intended to represent the faces of the universe and indicates that the figure of the universe is bounded by Pentagons. If we take the pentagons as regular pentagons (on the presumption or supposition that the universe is symmetrically constructed) the figure of the material universe will, of course, be a Dodecahedron, the geometrical model imitated by the Demiurgus in constructing the material universe.

But the true esoteric sense of the word “Makara,” does not mean “crocodile,” in truth, at all, even when it is compared with the animal depicted on the Hindu Zodiac. For it has the head and the fore-legs of an antelope and the body and tail of a fish. Hence the tenth sign of the Zodiac has been taken variously to mean a shark, a dolphin, etc. ; as it is the vahan of Varuna, the Ocean God, and is often called, for this reason, Jala-rupa or “water-form.”

Dhyanis

But very few are those who know—even in India, unless they are initiated—the real mystic connection which seems to exist, as we are told, between the names Makara and Kumâra. The first means some amphibious animal called flippantly ‘crocodile,’ as some Orientalists think, and the second is the title of the great patrons of Yogins (See “Saiva Purânas,”) the Sons of, and even one with, Rudra (Siva); a Kumâra himself. It is through their connection with Man that the Kumâras are likewise connected with the Zodiac.

See also

• Kumāras