This is a stub for a future note on Iranic lunar deities. The marUnmatta al-shahrastAnI, an adherent of the founder of the Assassins, Hasan bin sabbAh ironically recorded a fragment of a lost Iranic puruSha-sUkta-like origin mythology, where ahura mazdhA speaks in 1st person
ahura mazdA: "I created the whole of this world from myself. I created the souls of the righteous from the hair of my head; the sky from my brain; nails and arms ...(?) from my forehead; the sun from my eye; the moon from my nose; the stars from my tongue; sraosha &the rest of
the yazata-s from my ear; the earth from the sinew of my foot." ~based on Shaked. The moon deity here is mAh which appears to be spelt as MAO in the kuShANa coin and is usually depicted with the moon, a club & a sword. There is another deity seen on kuShAna coins & rare Roman
artefacts names as manao-baga. The root is related to manas -- which has an old IE relationship the word for moon. Unlike in the above Iranic puruSha-like origin myth the H tradition links to their counterpart: chandra-mA manaso jAtaH | But the kuShANa iconography of manao-baga
indicates the link with the moon rather clear by depicting it in the same way as with the deity named MAO. However, the iconography of manao-baga is distinct (here on kanishka's coin): he is seated on a throne with a trident helmet& is comparable to the H viShNu holding a chakra&
halAyudha & is four-armed in contrast to the 2-armed mAh. What are the antecedents of manao-baga. In the Zoroastrian stream of the Iranic tradition, we encounter the deity vohu manaH, who has the god mAh as one of his assistants. However, there is no evidence that the eastern
Iranics terms vohu manah as manao-baga. There is evidence from place names (vohumandAt) that some Iranics in the kuShANa-shaka realm from Chorasmia worshipped vohu manah as just that. Hence, manao-baga may be seen as distinct lunar deity of the Eastern Iranics who saw him as
comparable as viShNu. However, this sealing of huviShka shows him with a spear in addition to the chakra and hala.
