The Indian Moon is a man, he married all twenty-seven nakshatras, and he was cursed to waste away for openly preferring one of them.

Rohini was the favourite. Her father Daksha cursed Chandra to consumption; the other gods bargained it down to a waxing and waning rather than a death, which is why the Moon recovers every month and then starts dying again. It is a story that exists to explain an observation, and it explains it exactly.