Saṃjñā and Chāyā

This narrative is told in the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapters 74–75, and in the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 59. Saṃjñā, the daughter of Viśvakarma, was married to Sūrya. She could not bear the full strength of Sūrya’s tejas (radiance). She made a shadow-double of herself, named Chāyā, to serve in her place. Then she went to Uttara Kuru and did tapas (austerity) there as a mare. Yama and Yamunā were born from Sūrya’s displeasure before she left. Chāyā served Sūrya faithfully and bore him three children. Later her true nature was revealed. Viśvakarma then trimmed Sūrya’s tejas on his divine lathe, and from the trimmings he made the great weapons of the devas. Sūrya went to Uttara Kuru as a horse and found Saṃjñā. The Aśvins, Nāsatya and Daśra, were born from their union.

Saṃjñā and Sūrya’s tejas

Viśvakarma gave his daughter Saṃjñā in marriage to Sūrya, also called Mārtāṇḍa, the radiant lord who lights the three worlds. Sūrya’s tejas had no measure. His light made pure whatever it touched, and it held the cosmos up.

Saṃjñā was devoted to her husband. But she could not bear the full strength of his divine presence. Whenever she stood before him she lowered her eyes, and sometimes she shut them completely. The brilliance was more than she could endure for long.

The birth of Yama and Yamunā

Sūrya saw that Saṃjñā always turned her eyes away and closed them before him. He was displeased and said: “You always close your eyes before me. So you will bear a being who restrains (saṃyamana) all living creatures.”

From this śāpa (curse), Yama was born. He is the lord of dharma and the great restrainer of all beings.

Later Saṃjñā became restless and fidgety in Sūrya’s presence. He said: “Your mind is unsteady before me. You will bear a restless river-daughter.” From this second śāpa, Yamunā was born.

Both children were born from Sūrya’s displeasure, yet Saṃjñā loved them dearly.

Chāyā, the shadow-double

Saṃjñā could no longer live in the burning brightness of Sūrya’s presence, and she decided to go away. From her own body she made a woman, a shadow-double who matched her in every outward way. This woman was named Chāyā.

Saṃjñā told her: “Live here in my place. Serve my husband just as I would serve him. Look after my children. But never tell him that I am gone, even if he takes hold of your hair or curses you.”

Chāyā agreed, with one condition. She would stay silent and faithful in everything. But if Sūrya ever really seized her by the hair, or spoke a direct śāpa against her, she would have to tell the truth.

With this agreed, Saṃjñā left. She went first to the house of her father Viśvakarma.

Viśvakarma’s counsel and Saṃjñā’s tapas

Viśvakarma received his daughter with great honour. But he could not keep her there for long. A wife’s place is in her husband’s house, and to stay away without cause is not dharma. In time he urged her to go back.

Saṃjñā could not go straight back to Sūrya’s overwhelming presence. She went instead to Uttara Kuru, the northern land beyond the Śṛṅgavanta mountains. There, in the form of a mare, she did hard tapas. She wished to gain the inner strength to bear one day what she could not yet bear.

Chāyā’s service and the revelation

Chāyā served Sūrya faithfully and bore him three children. In time her true nature was revealed: she was not Saṃjñā at all, but a substitute made for the purpose. The secret came out, and Sūrya had to face the fact that his wife had long been away.

Sūrya went to Viśvakarma, who offered a way out. He would reduce Sūrya’s tejas so that his daughter could live with him. He placed Sūrya on his divine lathe, the workshop of the architect of the devas, and cut away fifteen-sixteenths of his radiance. Sūrya was left with only one-sixteenth of his first tejas. This was still enough to sustain the world, and now a devoted wife could stand before it.

The trimmed tejas was not wasted. From that shining material Viśvakarma made the great weapons of the devas:

• Bhagavān Śiva’s triśūla
• Bhagavān Vishṇu’s cakra, the Sudarśana
• Kubera’s vimāna
• the fierce śaktis (spears) of the other devas
• the terrible weapons of the yakshas and vidyādharas

The birth of the Aśvins in Uttara Kuru

Sūrya was now gentler in his radiance. He went to Uttara Kuru in the form of a horse (aśva) to find his true wife. He found Saṃjñā there as a mare, deep in her tapas.

Neither knew the other at once in their animal forms. As they came near, their nostrils touched, as horses greet each other. From this contact, from the mare’s mouth, the Aśvins were born. They are Nāsatya and Daśra, the divine twin physicians. Their name echoes the horse (aśva) in the way they were born.

The stotra of Sūrya

The reunion was done and the family was whole again. The devas and ṛshis gathered and praised Sūrya in a long stotra (hymn of praise). They called him the embodiment of the Ṛg, Yajur and Sāma Vedas. They called him the light of the three worlds, the one who makes all things pure through his kiraṇas (rays), and the lord of day and night.

Through his reduced but still sovereign tejas, the cosmos was set right again. Vaivasvata Manu, another son of Sūrya, went on ruling over the present age.

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa account (Chapter 59)

The Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 59, gives its own account of this episode, with several particular details.

The Sudarśana cakra from Sūrya’s trimmed tejas

When Viśvakarma reduced Sūrya’s tejas on his divine lathe, the shining material he shaved away was made into weapons. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa records in particular that from this trimmed solar radiance Viśvakarma made the Sudarśana cakra of Bhagavān Vishṇu, along with the weapons of the other devas.

Yamunā as a river

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa also says that Yamunā, born from Sūrya’s curse upon Saṃjñā, came down to the earth and became one of the great sacred rivers of Bhārata-varsha.

The Aśvins born from the mare’s mouth

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa says that the Aśvins, Nāsatya and Daśra, were born from the mouth of Saṃjñā in her mare form, when Sūrya’s seed entered her through the nostrils.

Sources

• Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapters 74–75
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 59