शिशुमार Śiśumāra

Two quite different figures share the name. (a) The older, compact Śiśumāra of Viṣṇu P. 2.9/2.12, Vāyu 52, Matsya 125/127 and Brahmāṇḍa 1,23 is explicitly a FOURTEEN-star figure (Matsya 125.5 caturdaśarkṣeṣu) with Dhruva in the tail; R.N. Iyengar and R.S. Hariharan identify it with Draco, and al-Bīrūnī (c. 1030 CE) independently reports that Hindus placed the pole star in a four-footed aquatic animal called Śiśumāra, glossing it with Persian susumār, the Great Lizard = Draco. (b) The Bhāgavata's Śiśumāra (5.23.4-7) carries all 28 nakṣatras and all the planets along its flanks, so it cannot be a compact circumpolar constellation — it is the whole celestial sphere given porpoise shape. Interpreters who identify it with Ursa Minor alone are reading (a) into (b). The one structural fact both share, and the strongest argument for the Draco/Ursa Minor core, is the run from the tail-tip inward: Dhruva → Agni/Indra/Prajāpati/Dharma → Dhātā/Vidhātā → Saptarṣi (Ursa Major), which traces exactly the path from the pole down the Draco/UMi tail to the Big Dipper.