Surya and Sanjana

 Surya and Sanjana 

Surya, the Sun God is also know as Vivaswan. He had married the daughter of the celestial architect, Vishwakarma, Sanjana. Surya, as a lustrous God might be important for the world and is living beings. But the heat giving quality that is an important advantage can be a  disadvantage for his near and dear.

 

That is what happened with Sanjana also. She was not able to bear the constant heat emanating from Surya. She tried bearing it but beyond a point was unable to. She still put up with it for many years. The couple had a son Vaivasvata, twins Yama and Yami.

 

Having had children and loving her husband, Sanjana tried her best to put up with the heat while being near Surya. Finally, her discomfort outweighed the love she had for her husband and children. Unable to bear the torture any longer, she decides to leave Surya.

 

Sanjana knew that Surya loved her a lot and will not allow her to leave. So she had to come up with a way in which he will not convince her to stay back. She struck on an idea to create a duplicate of herself. So she created an image of herself and infused life into the girl. This girl Chaaya looked exactly like Sanjana.

 

Sanjana made her promise that she will not reveal the truth to her husband or children. Chaaya said that she will keep the secret till such time Surya does not get any doubt and question her.

 

Leaving her to take care of Surya and her children, Sanjana went to her father’s house. She told Viswakarma about her inability to continue as a wife to Surya. Viswakarma gets angry at Sanjana for not doing her duty well. He asks her to go back to her husband. Sanjana respectfully refuses to do so. Viswakarma gets angry and says that there is no place in his home for someone who disobeys him. Sanjana leaves her father’s home to go on her own.

 

Unable to return to her husband and not being allowed to live in her father’s house, Sanjana reaches a neighbouring kingdom called Utharakaru. Scared that her father might come after her and compel her to go back to Surya, Sanjana assumed the form of a mare and started living there.

 

In Surya’s household things are going on as usual. Surya does not suspect Chaaya. Surya and Chaaya have two children of their own. They had a daughter Tapti and two sons, Savarni and Shani.

 

Once she had her own children, Chaaya became more affectionate towards them, while ignoring Sanjana’s children. At first the children do not notice this. Over a period, they started noticing that their mother was cold and unkind towards them.

 

One day, Yami (daughter of Sanjana) and Tapti (daughter of Chaaya) got into a fight. Yami cursed Tapti to become a river in Bhulok. Tapti, not to be outdone, cursed Yami to become a river. Immediately both girls became streams and were flowing in the North and West of Bharatavarsha. ‘

 

Chaaya was very upset with this incident and missed her daughter Tapti.  After this incident, Chaaya started taking out her anger on Yama the other child of Sanjana.

 

Yama started noticing his mother’s unkind behaviour towards him and complained to his father. Suspecting something was not alright, Yama started questioning Chaaya and in the heat of the argument threatens to kick her. Sanjana curses that his leg will wither and fall off. (There seems to be many versions of the curse and the mitigant in the various puranas).

 

Shocked at this, Yama tells his dad, Surya about the incident. Surya is equally shocked that a mother will choose to curse her child. He questions Chaaya and she tries to manage it by saying that she lost her temper. She assures Lord Surya that she will mitigate her curse by only letting small pieces of Yama skin fall on earth where they will be eaten by worms.

 

Surya is still not convinced or happy. He continues to question her. Chaaya starts fumbling at some point in time and gets her fact all mixed up. Surya continues to question her and finally Chaaya admits that she is not his real wife.

 

Chaaya apologises to Surya and says that she pretended to be his wife only because Sanjana insisted. She reveals that she wanted her children not to remain in the shadow and that is why she ill treated Sanjana’s children.

 

Chaaya also reveals that she had prayed a lot to Shiva without food and water when she was pregnant with Shani. This had made him dark and dull as he was not getting nourishment in his mother’s womb. This made Surya sorry as he had a secret doubt whether Shani was his son as he was so dark in colour. This had led to many fights between father and son and Shani had always disliked Surya. Surya apologises to Shani. Chaaya leaves Surya after blessing her children.

 

Surya, is shocked and angry but is also lonely. He goes to his father in law Vishwakarma and confronts him. Vishwakarma admits the truth and reveals that despite him telling Sanjana to go back to Surya, she refused to do so. He also reveals that she had left his house and is living in the form of a mare in the neighbouring kingdom.

 

Vishwarkarma tells Surya, “I know what Sanjana did was not correct. But she did try to adjust to her life with you and your heat and even had children with you. She only left after she could not take it any longer.”

 

Surya realised that there could be a problem with him as well. But he is unable to do anything about the heat as that is how nature created him.

 

Vishwakarma has a solution. He says, “Your only problem is this excessive heat of yours. While this may not be your fault and you love Sanjana, she cannot be expected to withstand this all through her life. So why don’t we find a solution so that we can reduce the heat that you give out.” Surya is surprised. He asks Vishwakarma, “Can we really do that?”

 

Vishwarkarma replies, “Why not? After all, I am the celestial engineer and architect”. He uses his tools to chip the excessive heat energy given out by Surya. He needed to distribute the energy to various other places. Vishwakarma transfers some of the Sun’s heat energy to Indra’s Vajrayudha, Vishnu’s Sudarshana chakra, Yama’s dhanda, Karthikeya’s spear, Shiva’s trishul and various other celestial weapons and arrows.

 

After chipping away the heat of the Surya, his heat reduced to one sixth of the original intensity. Now Surya is less hot, but his wife is still missing. Chaaya has left and Sanjana is a mare in a distant kingdom.

 

Although upset with Sanjana for disappearing without telling him, Surya still loves his wife.  He decides to go and woe her in the form of a horse. He takes the form of a stallion and goes to the kingdom of Uttarakaru. He starts grazing in the same fields in which Sanjana is grazing as a mare.

 

Sanjana senses that something is different about this stallion. She recognises that the stallion is her husband and starts to run afraid of his heat. She suddenly realises that his heat is not as intense as it used to be.

 

She goes closer to him. Surya assumes his original form and explains to her what had happened. He tells her to come back with him. Sanjana apologises to him for cheating him and goes back to Surya.

 

They enjoy their freedom for some more time as a stallion and a mare. During this period they have twin children, the Ashwini kumaras. The twins were called Ashwini Kumaras as their parents where in the form of Ashwa or horses when they were conceived. The Ashwini kumaras became the physicians to the Gods.

 

Soon after, Surya and Sanjana took their original forms and went to their abode.