Chandrasekhar

The word 'chandra' means moon and 'shekhara' means crest or peak. The moon adorns the head of Lord Shiva, which is explained as the peak - point of any human being. 

According to one legend, during the Churning of Ocean, when Lord Shiva consumed Halahala, his body temperature started rising. As it is believed that the moon is cool in its demeanor, he placed the moon on his head to lower his body temperature.

Another legend is that Daksha Prajapati, one of the sons of Lord Brahma, had 27 stars as his daughters who were married to the moon. However, the moon had a special attraction towards one of his many wives named Rohini and this not acceptable to the other wives. Daksha then warned the moon to treat all his wives equally. However the moon did not pay heed to it. Due to this, Daksha cursed the moon that it would lose its shine day by day. 

Soon it started losing light and took refuge in the ocean. Without the moon, the balance of nature got disturbed as the lives dependent on the light of the moon started suffering. To end this, all the deities requested Lord Shiva to do the needful. The moon then took refuge in Lord Shiva's matted hair. He succeeded in making the moon grow in size for 15 days and then wane for another 15 days, (which is why we see a full moon and a new moon!).

As Lord Shiva has the moon adorning his head, he is called Chandrasekhar.