16 – The Sons of the Sun

Hi Friends!

Today let’s start the stories of the major dynasties covered in Indian Mythology, and sometimes in the Indian History.

You may have noticed that rulers, in our country as well as other regions in the world (in the past as well as the present) claim descent from divinity (or as close to divinity as possible), and from that they prove their “right” to rule us “lesser” mortals. This “divine descent” can be through bloodlines (“sons of gods”), or through close association (“friends of gods”), or sometimes through inspiration (“inspired by gods”). Why do they do that I sometimes wonder. Is it because they are afraid (or sure!) that without such godly “descent”, they would not be found “decent” as rulers?

Tell me what do you think in the comments.

Let’s stop wondering for now, and get back to the wonderful mythological tales now!

In the Puranas, the books of “old” and wonderful mythological tales, there are many stories around the divine-origin dynasties and adventures of kings and princes (queens and princesses as well) from these. Two of the most well known amongst the vansha’s or dynasties are: (1) the Surya-vansha, or the Dynasty of the Sun; and (2) the Chandra-vansha, or the Dynasty of the Moon. Let us look at the common origin of these two bloodlines of “divine rulers”.

One of the Adityas, i.e. the sons of Sage Kashyapa with his wife Aditi, was called Vivaswan. Though all the Adityas were representations of the sun, Vivaswan was the most. He was extremely bright and was known for his harsh beauty.

Vivaswan, the Sun god, was married to Saranyu. Her name means the swift rain-bearing storm clouds, being also representative of fertility. In addition we have the imagery of the harsh and bright sun getting gentler in the presence of storm clouds (“happy marriage”), but sometimes causing the fast-moving clouds to disperse (“un-happy marriage”).

The father of Saranyu was Vishwakarma, the divine designer and craftsman. This deity was very important and powerful in the earlier hymns, identified with Tvastra, one of the important Adityas.

He was also sometimes identified with Brahma, or the original Prajapati, the Master of Creation, and not just a creator of buildings and artifices.

He was feared even by Indra, the king of gods. In fact in some stories he is considered father of Vritra, who is another personification of storm clouds, just like Saranyu, and Indra’s biggest opponent.

But later Vishwakarma, the Maker of the World, was reduced in importance. In fact later he was made a lesser god, son of Prabhasa, one of the eight Vasu’s, the one denoting the elemental phenomenon of sky.

Whatever be the case this skill of designing and making things, that Saranyu’s father and Vivaswan’s father-in-law had, would be of importance later.

Saranyu bore many children with Vivaswan, three of them are important. The eldest was Yama, a bright and healthy boy who was known for his liking of “correct behaviour” and justice. For this reason, he is called Dharma as well. Twin to Yama, was the beautiful and easy going Yami. Yama later became the god of death and justice, while Yami became the River Yamuna. We will get back to this story later.

The third progeny of Vivaswan and Saranyu is someone we have met earlier. He later was called Manu, the Seventh with that name, and position. He was called Vaivaswata Manu, i.e. the Manu who is son of Vivaswan. He was known for the truthfulness of his promises, hence called Satyavrata Manu, i.e. the Manu who makes true his promises. He was later married to Shraddha and hence called Shraddhadeva Manu, i.e. the Manu who is the husband of Shraddha. He is the Manu of the current Manvantara (Interval of Manu), and he was the deserving king who sat in the ship of the survivors along with the Seven Sages (“Saptarishis”), which was towed by Matsya, the Piscean Avataar of Vishnu.

After sometime Saranyu found the brightness and heat that she faced in her marriage due to nearness to Vivaswan extremely difficult to live, and love. So she decided to run away, with her usual swiftness. To ensure she was not chased and caught by her “bright” husband, she decided to leave her lookalike Chhaya, literally the shadow, behind in her place. Before going the loving mother Saranyu made Chhaya promise to take care of Saranyu’s children as if they were her own. Chhaya promised to be a just and loving mother to Yama, Yami and Vaivaswata. After this Saranyu went to her father’s place but was advised by him to return, on which she went away, and started living in another place in disguise.

Now Surya (“Vivaswan”) and his children were not aware of this switching, and assumed Chhaya was Saranyu. So the children claimed and received maternal love from Chhaya. And Surya claimed and received marital love from Chhaya. In time Chhaya bore three children to Surya. Just like Chhaya was a shadow of Saranyu, similarly these children were parallels of Saranyu’s children.

• Like Yama the god of justice, the eldest was the rewarder of righteous acts and deliverer of misfortune due to bad karma. He was Shani, the god of planet Saturn.
• Like the beautiful Yami who became the cool river Yamuna, there was a beautiful daughter who later became a river, though she was the warm one, known as Tapati (or Tapti).
• Like Satyavrata Manu, there was a righteous future Manu, of the eight Manvantara. He was called Savarni Manu, or the same looking manu, as he looked very similar to Satyavrata Manu.

After her own children were born, Chhaya seemed to have forgotten her promise, and started being partial to her own children, and mistreating Yama, Yami, and Satyavrata Manu. One day seeing this injustice, Yama became angry. He was then just a little boy, yet he already could not contain his displeasure with “incorrect” behaviour. In his childish rage he raised his leg, as if to kick his foster mother. At this Chhaya got angry, and cursed him that his leg would become worm-ridden and full of pus.

Scared, saddened, and scarred with worm infestation, Yama went to his father and told him what had happened. He also showed his ability of correct judgement, and said. “O Father! The woman who thus cursed me, may be my father’s wife, but not my mother, as no mother would curse her child thus.”

Vivaswan realised that his son was right, and using his powers reduced Yama’s curse. In some stories he made the worms fall off onto the soil. Whereas in some stories, he gave Yama a cockerel-bird that drew out all the worms and pus from his afflicted leg. Whatever way it was done, Yama became healthy and handsome again.

After this Vivaswan went to Chhaya, and confronted her of not being Saranyu. She accepted the truth, and told him everything.

On this Vivaswan became saddened, rather than angry, as he realised that his very character, of being bright and hot, had made the one he loved leave him. The sad god of Sun went to his father-in-law’s house to bring his wife back.

Vishwakarma informed him, that he had advised Saranyu to go back to her husband when she came to him. If she had not gone back, it meant she was hiding somewhere else, as she must find being near him unpleasant. Being a god of artifice, Vishwakarma offered to help, by reducing the brightness and heat just a little, so that it became possible for Saranyu to come close to him. From the removed portions of Vivaswan’s power, Vishwakarma made many divine weapons. One of them is Sudarshana Chakra “the discus of auspicious vision”, a famed weapon of Vishnu.

After that, the still bright, but not too harsh, god of Sun, Vivaswan, went and found his wife, the goddess of storm clouds, Saranyu. There is a story of Saranyu hiding as a mare on Earth. This is considered to be an alternate story of the birth of the Ashvin Kumaras, as well as Revanta, the guardian deity of horses and warriors.

What happened to the other wife, Chhaya, and her children?

Let’s go with the happy ending. All was forgiven, and Vivaswan lived happily with both his wives, Saranyu and Chhaya. In fact in most representation of Surya, he is shown with two wives.

Let us end with the story of how Yama became the god of death, and Yami became the river goddess Yamuna. The word Yama (and Yami) literally means “twin”.

Till this time there was no night, and no death. As all who were born till then were in some way divine. As we all are, divine in our own ways. There was no reason to die. No deity had yet chosen to die.

There was no night to be twin to and contrast with day, to let all measure the passing of days. No ending of death to be twin to and contrast with living, to let all celebrate life.

One more thing. In many mythological tales, be it Greek (Kronos & Rhea; Zeus & Hera) or Egyptian (Isis & Osiris), there were many married couples who were related closely to each other. In this time of eternal day, and eternal life, Yami decided that Yama, her handsome brother, should also be her husband. She said so to Yama, the righteous judge of “correct” behaviour. Yama disagreed and asked her to go away, and come back when she had removed this thought from her mind.

The righteous Yama decided that eternal life made people sometimes forget correct behaviour, and saw the need of death. So he became the first mortal. The first person to die. He lay down, and gave up his life, of his own decision.

After some time when Yami realised her folly, and returned to Yama, she found him lying dead and cold. This made her very sad, and she started crying. She cried so much that her tears threatened to submerge all the worlds. All the gods, including Surya, came and asked her to stop crying.

Yami kept saying, “But Yama, my righteous and handsome brother, died just today. How can I stop crying?”

As we said, this was the time of eternal day. Seeing the problem, the gods decided to help all (especially the perpetually crying Yami) to measure time, by dividing into equal days (when Surya was visible) and nights (when Surya was hidden). With the passage of the first night-and day cycle Yami realised that enough time had passed the death of Yama. She stopped crying. She was the first to feel true grief, and hence became wise, and slow to react. Hence the cool and beautiful Yami became the river Yamuna, with her slow flow, cool water and ability to grant wisdom to those who contemplate her flow.

Yama having been faultless in his life, and always aligned to correct behaviour and justice, became the first mortal to die. He died with no sins, and hence the only one who could judge the sins of others. As a famous Bollywood song goes, only he is allowed to judge others who hasn’t committed any sin. So he became the god of Death, and the god of correct behaviour and divine judgement. So the twin Yama became Dharma-Raj.

With nights, days can be better measured.

With death, life can be better appreciated.

Let this be the takeaway from the tale of the twins, righteous Yama and beautiful Yami.

It is said because of judging sins of others for a long time, Yama became too theoretical and far-removed from mortal life. He started giving harsh punishments exceeding the severity of the sins. When this became too much, he was once cursed by a wise man whom he had similarly punished, the Sage Mandavya. He had take one more mortal life, to realign his understanding of humanity.

Sometimes those who judge, need to live (or atleast understand) the life of those they judge.

Even if it is the god of judgement and “correct” behavior.

And especially us mortals, who judge others harshly without knowing why they do what they do.

In some later story we shall meet the mortal avataar of Dharma-Raj, the eldest son of the Sun. He was born as Vidura (the wise, the gentle), who became the prime-minister of the kingdom of Hastinapur (“the City of Elephants”), in the Epic Poem of Victory, sometimes called Jaya, and sometimes Mahabharata.

Next time let us connect the Dynasty of Sun, with one of the other sons of the Sun. And find how the progenitor of the Dynasty of Moon is also related to him.