Devalok
Legend · 5 tellings · Pan-India

Svarbhanu darkens the Sun; Rahu and the Sun's anger

Who is in it

  • Surya the Sun, darkened and later enraged
  • Svarbhanu the Asura who pierces him with darkness
  • Atri the priest who finds the Sun (Rigveda)
  • Indra strikes down Svarbhanu's magic (Rigveda)
  • Rahu the demon who drinks the nectar (Mahabharata)
  • Chandra the Moon, who with the Sun exposes Rahu
  • Vishnu cuts off Rahu's head
  • Brahma provides the remedy
  • Aruna set before the Sun as charioteer
  • Garuda carries Aruna to the east
  • Vinata mother who broke Aruna's egg

Texts: Rigveda, Shatapatha Brahmana, Mahabharata, Valmiki Ramayana

The story, beat by beat

  1. Svarbhanu, an Asura, pierces the Sun with darkness; all creatures are bewildered.
  2. Indra strikes down Svarbhanu's magic.
  3. Atri, with his fourth prayer, finds the Sun and sets his eye back in heaven.
  4. In the epic, Rahu drinks the nectar disguised as a god; the Sun and Moon point him out.
  5. Vishnu's discus cuts off his head, which rises to the sky and from then swallows Sun and Moon.
  6. The Sun, bitter that no god helps him, resolves to burn the worlds.
  7. Brahma sets Aruna, born half-formed from Vinata's egg, before the Sun as charioteer to absorb his heat.

eclipse darkness prayer grudge charioteer

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Rigveda 5.40.5-9

Pan-India All traditions

In a Soma hymn to Indra, Svarbhanu the Asura's descendant pierces Surya with darkness and creatures stand bewildered. Indra smites Svarbhanu's magic spread beneath the sky. Atri, setting the press-stones and praising the gods, discovers Surya hidden in gloom by his fourth prayer; a verse in the first person begs Atri and King Varuna for help against the oppressor who would swallow him. Atri establishes the eye of Surya in heaven. The Atris found the Sun again; none besides had power to do so.

Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer § 5.40.5-9

Primary text (translation)

Taittiriya Samhita 2.1.2

Pan-India All traditions

Svarbhanu the Asura pierced the sun with darkness; the gods desired an atonement for him. The first darkness they struck off became a black sheep, the second a bright-coloured one, the third a white one; what they cut from the upper part of the bone became a barren ewe, which they offered to the Adityas, and the earth grew broad and plants grew.

What is different here:

No Atri and no Indra; the gods remove the darkness in layers, each becoming a sheep. Told to explain an animal offering.

The Veda of the Black Yajus School (Taittiriya Sanhita), tr. A. B. Keith (1914) § 2.1.2

Primary text (translation)

Shatapatha Brahmana 5.3.2.2

Pan-India All traditions

Svarbhanu the Asura struck the sun with darkness and he did not shine. Soma and Rudra removed that darkness, and freed from evil he burns yonder. The king being consecrated has a pap offered to Soma and Rudra for the same reason.

What is different here:

The rescuers are Soma and Rudra.

The Satapatha-Brahmana, tr. Julius Eggeling (Sacred Books of the East 12, 41) § 5.3.2.2

Primary text (translation)

Mahabharata, Adi Parva 16, 19 and 24

Pan-India All traditions

At the churning of the ocean Rahu, a Danava, drinks the nectar in the guise of a god. Surya and Soma point him out; Narayana's discus cuts off his head as the drink reaches his throat. The head rises roaring to the sky; from then on there is a quarrel between it and the two, and it swallows them. The Sun, resentful that he alone suffers for having helped the gods and that they look on, goes to the western mountains and radiates heat at midnight to destroy the worlds. Brahma answers the frightened gods that Aruna, son of Kashyapa, shall stay in front of the Sun as charioteer and take away his energy. Aruna had been born half-formed when Vinata broke his egg after five hundred years; he cursed her to slavery. Garuda carries him to the east and the Sun rises veiled by him.

What is different here:

New name (Rahu), new cause (the nectar and the informers), a severed immortal head, and the Sun's own anger. Atri is absent. Adds the origin of the charioteer.

The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § adi.16; The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § adi.19; The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § adi.24

Primary text (translation)

Ramayana, Uttara Kanda 35

Pan-India All traditions

On the day the child Hanuman leaps at the Sun, Rahu, 'of whom the head alone remained', comes to seize the Sun at the time of conjunction, finds the child at the chariot and flees to Indra, complaining that the Sun and Moon given to him to satisfy his hunger have been given to another.

What is different here:

Rahu here holds the Sun and Moon as an allotted food by Indra's grant, and is himself frightened off.

The Ramayana of Valmiki, tr. Hari Prasad Shastri (1952-59), Uttara Kanda § uttara.35

Sources: Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer; The Veda of the Black Yajus School (Taittiriya Sanhita), tr. A. B. Keith (1914); The Satapatha-Brahmana, tr. Julius Eggeling (Sacred Books of the East 12, 41); The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer; The Ramayana of Valmiki, tr. Hari Prasad Shastri (1952-59), Uttara Kanda

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