Surya, the Sun god, had a wife named Sanjna. Her father was Vishvakarma, the maker who made things for the gods. Vishvakarma gave his daughter to the Sun, and she went to live in the Sun’s house.
Surya’s light was very strong. It made the three worlds burning hot. When Surya looked at Sanjna, she shut her eyes. She could not bear his bright light.
Sanjna and Surya had a son, Manu. He came to know many kinds of learning. Then twins were born, a boy and a girl. The boy was Yama, and the girl was Yami.
But the Sun’s light was hard for Sanjna to bear. “What shall I do?” she thought. “Where can I go to find rest? And how will my husband grow calm?” Then she thought of her father’s house.
So Sanjna made a lady out of her own shadow. The lady looked just like her. Her name was Chhaya, which means shadow.
“Stay here in the Sun’s house, as if you were me,” said Sanjna. “Care for my two boys and my girl. Tell no one that I have gone. If anyone asks, say, ‘I am Sanjna.’”
“I will do as you say,” said Chhaya. “I will keep your secret, unless I am pressed very hard.” So Sanjna left the Sun’s house and went to her father.
Her father, Vishvakarma, welcomed her with honour. After some time he said, “While I see you, my child, many days feel like half a moment. But now go home to your husband. And come again to see me.”
Sanjna did not go home. The Sun’s heat was too much for her. She went to a far land in the north, the Northern Kurus. There she turned into a mare, a lady horse, and did tapas, going without food.
Back in the Sun’s house, Chhaya looked just like Sanjna. When Surya saw her, he thought she was his wife. He did not know the secret. Chhaya had two little sons and a little daughter. The second son was Shani.
Chhaya cared most for her own two little sons, Savarni and Shani. She did not give Sanjna’s children the same love. Manu bore it quietly. Yama could not.
Yama was hurt and cross. He lifted his foot at Chhaya, and then he stopped. He held it back. His foot did not touch her.
But Chhaya was angry too. She spoke a curse, angry words that wish harm: “Your foot will fall away!” Yama was frightened and sad.
Yama went with Manu to their father and bowed. “I lifted my foot, but I did not let it fall. Please forgive me. Our mother does not love us all the same. No mother would say such words to her own child.”
Surya said, “A mother’s words cannot be unsaid. But you are my son, and I will find a way. You will keep your foot. Only a tiny bit of the curse will come true.”
Surya thought about Yama’s words. He asked Chhaya, “Why do you love one child more? How could a mother say such words? You are not Sanjna. Where has she gone?” “I am Sanjna,” she said. Then she said no more.
Surya asked her again and again. He grew stern. Now Chhaya was pressed very hard, just as she had said. Trembling, she told him the secret: Sanjna had made her from her own shadow and gone away.
Surya went to Vishvakarma’s house, hot with anger. Vishvakarma greeted him with honour, and Surya’s anger cooled. “Where is Sanjna?” Surya asked. “Your light is too strong,” said Vishvakarma. “She could not bear it. Now she does tapas in the forest.”
Surya grew still and looked with his mind. He saw Sanjna in the north, a mare doing tapas. He knew her wish: “May my husband be gentle and beautiful.” So he told Vishvakarma, “Pare down my splendour.” To pare means to trim away.
Vishvakarma set Surya on his great turning wheel. Slowly he pared the bright light away. Drums sounded. The gods and the sages, wise holy men, sang praises. Vishvakarma sang too, and his hair stood up with joy.
At last Surya kept just a small part of his light, and he was very beautiful. From the light that was pared away, Vishvakarma made the god Vishnu’s discus, a sharp wheel that spins, and the god Shiva’s trident, a spear with three points.
Then Surya turned himself into a horse and went to the far north. The mare saw him coming and turned to face him. There twin sons were born, the Ashvins, and a son, Revanta, the rider with a bow.
Surya showed his own true form. It was gentle now. This time, Sanjna looked at him, and she felt great joy. She took her own shape again, and Surya led her home, full of love.
Surya gave each child a place. Manu became the Manu, the head of the world’s people for our own long age. Yama, who kept his foot, became the fair judge of the south. Yami became the river Yamuna. The Ashvins became the gods’ doctors.
Revanta became the one people call on in lonely forests. Savarni will be a Manu one day. Shani became a graha, by his father’s word. Their sister Tapati became a queen. Every child of the Sun, Shani too, had a place, given by their father.
For grown-ups
Where this story comes from
This story is retold from the Markandeya Purana, which tells it twice: in cantos 77–78 and again, at more length, in cantos 106–108 (canto 107 is a hymn). Verse numbers follow F. E. Pargiter’s English translation, The Markandeya Purana (Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta, 1904). In parts of cantos 106 and 108 the printed verse numbers are hard to read in the scan we used, so a few numbers there may be one place off. The short telling in the Vishnu Purana (book 3, chapter 2, Wilson’s translation) tells the same story, and we name where it differs. Pargiter calls Shani “the planet Saturn”, and he calls the Sun “the Sun”, Martanda or Vivasvat. The story calls him Surya, his Sanskrit name, and uses one name for each person. Shani in this story is the same Shani that families who follow Jyotisha speak of: in the sky he is the slow planet Saturn, and Sade Sati is the name for the roughly seven and a half years in which he passes through a person’s moon sign and the sign on each side of it — a time people meet with steadiness and patience. It is a faithful simplification. We shortened and left out parts, and we name them below. We did not add events, and we did not change anyone’s reasons. The dialogue is a plain rendering of Pargiter’s English, not a word-for-word quotation. Eight lines need a note.
1. Two tellings. The story uses both Markandeya tellings. In both, Vishvakarma pares down the Sun’s light before the Sun goes north to find Sanjna. They differ in two places, and the story follows canto 77 in both. In canto 77 the Sun learns the truth when Chhaya tells him (77.36); in canto 106 he first perceives it in deep thought, and then she tells him (106.33–34). In canto 77 he sees Sanjna as a mare before the paring (77.39–41); in canto 108 he sees her after it (108.7). The Vishnu Purana tells the paring after the homecoming.
2. Page 15, “Only a tiny bit of the curse will come true.” The Sun says a mother’s word cannot be made false, so he lets insects take some flesh from Yama’s foot and fall to the earth: “her word is thus made true, and thou shalt be saved” (106.29–30; 78.28; 108.16). The foot does not fall. The story says this as “a tiny bit of the curse”, and it leaves out the insects.
3. Page 17, “just as she had said.” Chhaya promised to keep the secret even if her hair were seized and curses drawn down on her (77.14; 106.9). The story tells that as “unless I am pressed very hard” (page 7). The link on page 17 is ours: the purana says only that the Sun questioned her again and again and was ready to curse her, and that she then told him, trembling (77.35–36; 106.33–34).
4. Page 16 joins both tellings. The questions are from 106.31–32 and 77.33. “I am Sanjna” is from 77.33–34; in 106.33 she simply gives no answer.
5. Page 23, “This time.” These two words are ours. They point back to page 2, where Sanjna shut her eyes. The purana says she gazed on his true form and felt a keen joy (78.25; 108.13).
6. Yami and the Yamuna. Canto 106.4 names the twins Yama and Yami; 77.7 and 106.3 call the daughter Yamuna; the Vishnu Purana says “the goddess Yami (or the Yamuna river)”. The story calls her Yami and says on page 24 that she became the river. At the end of canto 108 the text says the younger daughter became the Yamuna; Pargiter’s footnote calls this a mistake, since that daughter is Tapati.
7. Pages 24–25, “given by their father.” The purana says the Sun appointed Yama, the Ashvins, Revanta and Shani to their places and made the Yamuna a river (78.27–33; 108.17–24). For Manu, Savarni and Tapati it says only what they became. The closing line speaks of all the children together.
8. A mare. Page 9 says “a mare, a lady horse”: a mare is a female horse. Sanjna takes this shape for her tapas in every telling (77.23; 106.11; 108.7; Vishnu Purana 3.2). It is her own choice, not a punishment.
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Three things this telling leaves out, and why
- The Sun’s sharp words about the children’s names (77.3–6). When Sanjna shuts her eyes, the Sun speaks sharply in anger and makes Yama’s and the Yamuna’s names into curse-words. The story keeps the shut eyes (page 2) and leaves out the sharp words. They show the god in a small anger and a child needs nothing from them. The meaning stays: she still cannot bear his light (77.8).
- Vishvakarma’s reason for sending her home (77.19–20). Her father says that a long stay among kin brings a married woman no good name, and that her home is her husband’s house. The story keeps his love and his words “go home… come again” (77.18, 77.21).
- Chhaya’s quivering lip and shaking hand (77.28). The story gives the curse as spoken words only. Chhaya is never called wicked; the purana does not call her so.
- The insects at Yama’s foot (106.29–30; 78.28; 108.16). The way the curse comes true — insects take some flesh from his foot and fall to the earth — is left out. Page 15 keeps that his foot is saved and only a small part of the curse comes true.
- The world tossed about as the Sun whirls (106.41–46). While the Sun turns on the wheel, the earth flies up to the sky, the oceans spill, hills break and the stars fall. This would frighten a child and is not needed for the story. Page 20 keeps the wheel, the music and the joy.
- The dancers’ gestures and the long hymns (106.47–60; 107; 78.1–14). The gods, the sages and the heavenly singers praise the Sun at length, and the dancers of heaven dance “with amorous and coquettish gestures” (106.60). The story keeps that they sang and that drums sounded. The hymns of canto 107 and 78.2–14 are left out. In 78.14, the last line of that hymn, the gods ask the Sun of his own will to soften his light; in 78.15 he sheds his splendour.
- How the Ashvins and Revanta were born (78.22–24; 108.8–11). The purana says the two horses joined their noses, and tells the birth in adult words. The mare also turns to face the horse because she is afraid of a stranger. The story says only that she turned to face him and that the children were born there.
- The other weapons (108.4–5; 78.18–20). From the pared light Vishvakarma also made Kubera’s palki, the rod of the lord of the dead, the war-god’s spear and the weapons of the other gods. The story names only Vishnu’s discus and Shiva’s trident.
- Later tellings of Shani’s birth. Some well-known tellings, for example the Shani Jayanti story, say that the Sun doubted the dark baby and that Shani’s look darkened his father. These events are not in the Markandeya Purana or in Vishnu Purana 3.2, so the story leaves them out. In these texts Shani is a baby and then a planet, given his place by his father.
Some details go to this page instead of the story. Savarni gets his name because he was “equal to the eldest son Manu” (106.14–15). Of the Sun’s light, fifteen parts were pared away and one part in sixteen was kept (108.1–2; 78.20); the Vishnu Purana says an eighth was taken off. The paring took place in Shaka-dvipa (106.40). Yama is also called the Righteous-eyed and the King of righteousness, and he is lord of the ancestors (108.15–18). Revanta is king of the Guhyakas (78.31; 108.20). Savarni will be the eighth Manu, “when Bali shall become Indra”, and now does tapas on the top of Mount Meru (78.33; 108.23). Tapati married King Samvarana, and her son was Kuru (106.16; 78.34). The Yamuna flows from Mount Kalinda (78.30). Vishvakarma also offers to restrain the Sun’s form before the Sun asks (106.38); page 19 gives only the Sun’s words. Yama asks his father for a way to save his foot (106.26); page 15 gives the answer. Pages 24–25 put the children’s places in two pages, one short line each.
The question children ask here
“What happened to the shadow-lady?” The purana does not tell us. This is all it says about Chhaya after the secret comes out:
- trembling, she told the Sun what had happened (77.36; 106.34);
- the Sun then went to Vishvakarma, and the rest of the story follows the Sun and Sanjna (77.36–78.26; 106.35–108.14);
- at the end, it tells the places of Chhaya’s children, Savarni, Shani and Tapati (78.32–34; 108.23–24), and nothing more about Chhaya.
“The old story does not tell us. It tells us that the Sun gave every child a place.”
A Sanatani Production
