The sun god Surya is not one to be taken lightly. He is loved and feared and worshipped by all. The birth of Surya Dev, harks back to birth of our cosmos; there is story that states that he is the son of Sage Kashyap and his wife Aditi, but it was the beginning of time and things were still in a very nebulous state, so it has not been central to Surya’s existence in the myths and legends. But what does matter is that Surya is powerful, dynamic and can change the course of those who worship him in the most positive way. He creates and influences leaders, drives entrepreneurship and adventure. However, despite all his charisma, he does have relationship issues with his wives and children, like most of us do.
His first wife, Saranya, was a loving wife who bore twins, Yama and Yamuna. Yet, despite all her care and concern, Surya never noticed that he was almost blinding her with his brilliance and singing her with his heat! Now, a good Aryan wife does not talk above her husband and never complains, instead she finds a perfect compromise- she creates her shadow Chhaya to take her place, while she goes off to the mountains to meditate about her future.
Surya, of course, gets up every morning and rushes off on his chariot pulled by seven horses, each representing a colour of the rainbow and corresponding to the seven chakras of consciousness in every person. He is a big strong man with a great deal of responsibility, so noticing that his wife had changed was just too much to ask for! Instead, he feels comforted by the calm shadowiness of Chhaya, and falls into her harms without any concern at all. There is perfection in the skies right until Chhaya gives birth to his baby, Shani. All hell breaks loose! How could Surya, with a fair and lustrous complexion, the epitome of Aryan handsomeness, possibly have a son as dark as the night in the nether world!
Of course, the story ends comfortably for Surya-as he searches high and low for Saranya, he finds her chastely meditating. He is so ecstatic about finding her, he even compromises on his brightness, shaving of a sixteenth of it off. So the story ends with Surya happy with his two wives with more added later; the only person not quite satisfied is his son Shani, who swears eternal vengeance on him and opposes him in every move.
Most would think, the glorious sun just shines forth, beaming strength and energy, that there would be no-one who would oppose or disrespect him. But he has had his fair share of problems- Hanuman, the powerful son of the Wind God, sees him in the horizon and thinks that Surya is a beautiful Mango. He leaps up and tries to swallow him. This leads to a celestial chase across the sky, while the world looks on in horror, as Surya disappears for a brief instance and the world is plunged into darkness. Indra, the King of the devas, throws his thunderbolt at Hanuman to stop the disaster. This of course, is followed by complex negotiations with the aggrieved parents of Hanuman, before Surya is able to return to job of lightening up the day.
At another time, Sage Jagdamani, is tormented by Surya’s summer heat, decides to take the Surya down with his arrows. While at dawn, his arrows don’t reach him initially, as Surya reaches the zenith at noon, he can feel the swishing of Jagdamani’s arrow at it whizzes by him. He decides he needs to solve this problem. He comes down and calms the sage down; he says that he has to shine to give succour to world but he promises that when his summer glare becomes unbearable, he will create dark thick clouds that bring cooling rain- and ever since every soul on the subcontinent, sweaty and exhausted in the summer heat, has looked out on a summer evening for a hint of dark clouds that bring life sustaining water.
Surya Dev role in our lives has changed over time; a supreme source of energy and power in the Rig Vedic times, He controlled not just the day –but time and seasons as well, and for a culture steeped in agriculture and animal husbandry – it would make Surya most Iconic God of all. However, that changed to a less important role during a period when human thought and philosophy became focus of learning…He became part of the great stories and epics, the good looking God that Kunti desires and tries her special mantra on. While she bears his son Karna, Surya is not strong enough to protect Karna from social stigma and isolation. Proving his diminishing authority in the Vedic pantheon. Yet, we still revere his strength, as many turn to East every morning with folded hands and recite the Gayatri mantra to praise and honour him. Because there is no denying that he sits at the centre of our solar system and is our primary energy resource.
Orbiting the planetary mythic trail
The stars and the planets remain forever like eternal sentinels in the sky for us to look up to and wonder at. Over millenniums, curious people have tracked their movements and tried to remember their complex rhythms and link them to the changes in the world around them.
Amateurs like me, would have found it entertaining to attach stories and attributes to these stars or name them after learned scholars – it just makes it easier to remember the patterns that they trace, much like a mnemonics code.
Over time, with multiple users learning and adding to the code, it probably became a story that came alive on a clear winter night around a fire, as they huddled together and sipped some sweet soma.
I think the stories and yarns that spun around these stars are not just fabulous tales that reflect on the intelligence and charm of ancient scholars but they also contain within themselves the ethos of the story tellers and their world view. They are told with an effortless ease, unbound by the limits of social morality – they are the most exciting hints at how accepting society was! They revelled in anger, love, loyalty, revenge and lust with same ease as they measured the complex points of crossing of the lunar nodes that resulted in eclipses. They spoke in almost a matter of fact manner about bisexual attributes of Mercury; homosexuality among the many wives of Chandra. The quirky wonderment of these personalities were celebrated through the stories.
I have, over last few weeks, tried create a framework for these tales – who could be a star? What kind of people were they? However, this was merely a teaser to the colourful world of sagas that were spun out. In search for a simple linear narrative, the rich textures and layers had to be strictly ironed into a flat frame and sometimes just a hint of a colourful shade could be mentioned when there should have been a wide angled landscape described.
So, sometimes the story is not just about what has been narrated but it is more of a hint, about what has been left out! Certain things, that you must remember, is that these stories evolved over hundreds of years and across thousands of miles – handed down, edited, expanded- from saint to scholar to humourist to saint again! Each left their indelible mark. Characters crossed time and space and their drama was shared with different people and they became part of a new cultural landscape. These stories are like colourful pop–up books, multi-layered with focus that depends where the narrator is standing.
It has been a very exciting journey for me to chart the skies through these stories, I do hope you enjoyed them too.
By Sheila Bhattacharya
Also Read –
The story of the nine planets or the NavGrahas
