Graha epithets

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

At 11:37 AM 12/5/97 -0500, Allen Thrasher writes:
>BRhaspati's wife is tArA not tArakA. The word can mean 'a planet which
>seizes other planets.'
>
>regards,
>
>sarma.
>
>
>Adding -kaa to Tara- would be a pretty standard meaning of making a
>diminutive with exactly the same meaning and reference as the original.  Cf.
>Kali and Kalikaa.
>
>Allen Thrasher
>
>

Usually this is done for common nouns. It is used for proper nouns as an
expression of endearment. Some thing like `my little one' in english.
The example of kAlikA you have given perhaps comes under this category-
an expression intimacy  that the devotee feels towards his Godess.

bRhaspati may be entitled to call tArA as tArakA, perhaps candra and
other near and dear ones like her father and mother. Not you and me.
Anyway I have not come across tArakA being used for tArA the wife of
bRhaspati.

regards,

sarma.