Jyotiḥ-Sanniveśa: The Arrangement of the Luminaries

Jyotiḥ-sanniveśa means “the arrangement of the luminaries”: how the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars are placed in the three worlds. Chapters 41 to 43 of the first half (Pūrvārdha) of the Kūrma Purāṇa describe this in detail. They also describe the seven vāyu-nemi (wheels of wind) that keep this whole system turning.

The sun’s ratha (chariot) is described with great care. It is drawn by seven horses who are the Vedic metres (chandas), its axle reaches to Mānasa-parvata, and its wheel is the year itself. Seven separate rays of the sun feed the moon and each planet in turn. The sizes of the planets, how they move, and how far they are from the earth are all given in yojanas (a yojana is an old Indian measure of distance). The sun is identified with Parameśvara himself: Mahādeva, Prajāpati, the one who keeps the three worlds alive through his light. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa and the Viṣṇu Purāṇa give their own accounts, which are described further below.

The Seven Lokas and Their Positions

A loka is a world or plane of existence. The Kūrma Purāṇa says that seven lokas arise from the brahmāṇḍa (the “egg of Brahmā”, the universe), stacked one above the other:

1. Bhūloka: the world of the earth. It reaches as far as the rays of the sun and moon give light.
2. Bhuvarloka: reaches above the sun’s disc by the same distance as Bhūloka.
3. Svarloka: the region above, up to the station of Dhruva (the pole star), where the vāyu-nemis (wind-circles) are found.
4. Maharloka: one koṭi (ten million) yojanas above Dhruva. It is home to beings who live on through whole kalpas (days of Brahmā).
5. Janaloka: two koṭi yojanas above Maharloka. It is the home of the Sanaka munis and their brothers, the sons of Brahmā.
6. Tapoloka: three koṭi yojanas higher. It is the home of devas whose bodies are made of light (tejomūrti) and who cannot be burned.
7. Satyaloka (Brahmaloka): six koṭi yojanas above Tapoloka. It is called Apunarmāraka, “the place of no return”. Here Brahmā lives with the greatest yogīs, drinking the amṛta (nectar) of yoga.

Above Brahmaloka is Viṣṇu’s own abode, described as filling Brahmā’s city with the divine palace of Nārāyaṇa. Higher still is the shining, auspicious city of Śiva, Rudraloka. It is full of Śiva, Pārvatī, thousands of yogīs, the bhūtagaṇas (Śiva’s attendants) and the Rudras. Only those of pure sattva (goodness), free of ahaṃkāra (ego), kāma (desire) and krodha (anger), can reach it.

The Seven Vāyu-Nemis

Within Svarloka, seven layers of wind (vāyu-nemi) keep the luminaries moving in their paths. Their names are:

1. Āvaha
2. Pravaha
3. Anuvaha
4. Saṃvaha
5. Vivaha
6. Parāvaha
7. Parivāha

These winds carry the planets and stars around their circuits. The Kūrma Purāṇa says the planets are guided and driven by these winds, moving in fixed orbits like a potter’s wheel.

Distances of the Planets from the Earth

The text gives the distance of each luminary from the earth in lakhs of yojanas (one lakh is one hundred thousand):

At Dhruva’s station Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa himself dwells, in his form as dharma.

The Sizes of the Luminaries

The sun’s viṣkambha (diameter) is nine thousand yojanas. Its vaiśālya (circumference) is three times its diameter. The moon is twice as large as the sun. Rāhu is the same size as both. He comes near them and eclipses them by raising the round shadow of the earth.

The sizes of the other planets, compared with the moon, are:

• Śukra: one-sixteenth of the moon
• Bṛhaspati: one quarter smaller than Śukra
• Aṅgāraka and Śani: each one quarter smaller than Bṛhaspati
• Budha: one quarter smaller than Aṅgāraka, both in diameter and in disc

The text says all the stars seen in the sky are the same size as Budha. The stars differ in their distance from one another by five hundred, four hundred, three hundred or two hundred yojanas.

The Three Upper and Four Lower Planets

The text sorts the eight planets into two groups by their speed:

The upper three (slow-moving, mandagamana):

• Śani (Saturn, the son of Sūrya), Bṛhaspati (Jupiter), Aṅgāraka (Mars)

The lower four (fast-moving, śīghragamana):

• Sūrya, Candra, Budha, Śukra

During the Dakṣiṇāyana (the sun’s southern course), the sun moves below the paths of the other planets. The moon travels on a wider arc above it. The circle of stars moves above the moon. Rising up from the stars come Budha, Śukra, Aṅgāraka, Bṛhaspati, Śani, the Saptarṣis and, last of all, Dhruva, each in its place.

The Sun’s Ratha

The Kūrma Purāṇa describes the sun’s ratha (chariot) very exactly:

• Size: nine thousand yojanas
• Īṣādaṇḍa (yoke-pole): twice the size of the chariot (eighteen thousand yojanas)
• Axle (akṣa): one and a half koṭi yojanas plus seven niyatas long; the wheel is fixed on this axle
• Wheel (cakra): three nābhis (hubs), five āras (spokes) and six aṃśas (rims); within it the wheel of time in the form of the year (saṃvatsara) is fully set
• Second axle: forty thousand yojanas; a shorter axle rests on Mānasa-parvata, the fixed support of Dhruva
• Horses: seven horses who are the Vedic metres (chandas): Gāyatrī, Bṛhatī, Uṣṇik, Jagatī, Paṅkti, Anuṣṭup and Triṣṭup

Four cities stand in the four directions on the sun’s path: Amarāvatī (Indra’s city, east), Saṃyamanī (Yama’s city, south), Sukhā (Varuṇa’s city, west) and Vibhāvarī (Soma’s city, north). Guided by Pitāmaha Brahmā, the sun moves through these cities carrying the whole wheel of stars, like an arrow shot from a bow.

The Twelve Ādityas and the Sun’s Companions

The twelve Ādityas (sons of Aditi) ride with the sun, and the text says each governs two months (a ṛtu, or season). Their names are Dhātā, Aryamā, Mitra, Varuṇa, Śakra, Vivasvān, Pūṣā, Parjanya, Aṃśu, Bhaga, Tvaṣṭā and Viṣṇu. The text calls these twelve aṃśa-avatāras (partial avatāras) of Viṣṇu himself.

The sun’s company changes every two months, with each ṛtu (season). There are twelve groups of beings in all. They include ṛṣis, who praise the sun with Vedic verses; gandharvas (heavenly singers), who sing with ṣaḍja and the other musical notes; apsarases (heavenly dancers), who dance to please the sun; yakṣas; nāgas (serpent beings); rākṣasas; and the Vālakhilyas. The Vālakhilya ṛṣis surround the sun from sunrise and lead it to its setting. Together this company looks after tapana (heat), varṣa (rain) and prabhā (light) through the year.

The Seven Rays of the Sun and What They Do

Chapter 43 names seven rays (raśmis) of the sun. Each one feeds a particular luminary:

The Suṣumṇa ray spreads both across and upward. Through these seven rays the sun feeds the whole system of stars and makes them all grow and light up the world. The same rays of the sun draw up water from rivers, oceans, wells and canals, gathering it through a thousand channels (nāḍīs). Of those thousand rays, four hundred bring rain. The text names groups of rain-bearing rays: candrama, gāhma, kāñcana, śātana and amṛta.

The Moon and the Amṛta

The moon’s ratha has three wheels. It is drawn by ten horses the colour of mallikā (jasmine) flowers, yoked on both the left and the right. The moon’s waxing and waning depend on Dhruva’s station.

In the śukla-pakṣa (the bright fortnight), when the sun is on the far side, the moon fills up with its kalās (digits or phases). After the bright fortnight, the devas drink these kalās one by one. By the fifteenth phase, near the end of the kṛṣṇa-pakṣa (the dark fortnight), the pitṛs (ancestors) come to the moon from behind and drink the last kalā. On amāvāsyā (the new-moon day), the ancestors are satisfied for a whole month by the stream of amṛta that flows from the moon’s rays. The moon is never wholly destroyed, because Sūrya’s Suṣumṇa ray fills it with amṛta again.

The Chariots of the Planets

Each planet has its own ratha and horses:

• Budha: a ratha drawn by horses born of the wind, with the speed of water
• Śukra: drawn by ten horses born of the earth
• Aṅgāraka: a golden ratha with eight horses
• Bṛhaspati: a golden ratha with eight horses
• Śani: a silver ratha with eight horses
• Rāhu and Ketu: an iron ratha with eight horses each

All their movements are guided by cords of wind (vāyu-raśmis) tied to Dhruva. Every planet and star is, in the end, held in place by Dhruva.

The Sun as Parameśvara

An important teaching of the Kūrma Purāṇa is that the sun is Parameśvara himself:

“That great deva Sūrya present there is sākṣāt Maheśvara, the blue-throated, eternal Bhagavān Śiva who reveals himself to those who know the Veda.”

He is also called Parameṣṭhī and Prajāpati. The twelve Ādityas are aṃśas (portions) of Viṣṇu. The rays of the sun carry the teja (radiance) of Rudra, Upendra, Candra and all the devas. The sun is the mūla-kāraṇa, the root cause, of the three worlds.

Jyotiḥ-Sanniveśa in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa (Chapter 24)

Chapter 24 of the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, also called Jyotiṣ-sanniveśa, gives a full account of the kinds of fire, the twelve Ādityas with their months and numbers of rays, the colours of the sun in each season, and the teaching that all light in the universe comes from the sun.

The Three Fires

The Brahmāṇḍa names three basic kinds of fire that keep the universe going:

1. Pārthiva (earth-fire): the fire present in the earth, the everyday fire of life on earth
2. Śuci or Saurāgni (solar fire): the fire within the sun, the final source of heat and light
3. Ābja or Vaidyutāgni (water-fire or lightning-fire): fire that shows itself in water as lightning, the fire of the sky

A fourth form is also named: Jāṭharāgni, the fire of digestion inside every living body. All these fires are in the end forms of the one saurāgni, the great fire of the sun.

The Twelve Ādityas: Months and Rays

The Brahmāṇḍa names the twelve Ādityas with their months and the number of kiraṇas (rays of the sun) at work in each month. The number of rays rises through the year, reaching its highest at Āṣāḍha, and then varies in the second half:

The chapter gives the full number of rays for each month; the table shows only the figures named clearly. Together the twelve Ādityas are the twelve monthly forms of the sun through the year.

The Colours of the Sun in Each Season

The Brahmāṇḍa teaches that the sun’s colour changes with the seasons as it moves through the year:

The Sun as the Source of All Light

A key teaching of the Brahmāṇḍa on the luminaries is that the sun is the source of all light and all time in the universe. All the other planets and luminaries get their light from the sun’s seven highest rays. Rāhu, Ketu and the other grahas (planets) all receive their light from the sun and pass it on. Without the sun there would be no light anywhere. The sun is called sarva-graha-śreṣṭha, “the greatest of all the grahas”, because all the others depend on it for their light.

The Viṣṇu Purāṇa’s Account (Dvitīyāṃśa, Chapters 7–12)

The Viṣṇu Mahā Purāṇa covers the arrangement of the luminaries in Chapters 7 to 12 of its second part (Dvitīyāṃśa). It gives several measurements and descriptions.

Distances of the Lokas (Chapter 7)

The Viṣṇu Purāṇa gives these distances in yojanas (one crore is ten million):

The Size of the Sun’s Ratha (Chapter 8)

The Viṣṇu Purāṇa gives the chariot’s size as: width 9,000 yojanas; pole (īṣādaṇḍa) 18,000 yojanas; axle (akṣa) 1.57 crore yojanas, reaching from Meru to Mānasottara. The wheel is trinābhika, with three hubs for the three parts of the day. It has five spokes (the five kinds of year) and six rims (the six seasons). The seven horses are the seven Vedic metres.

The Śiṃśumāra Cakra and Dhruva (Chapter 9)

A special teaching of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa is the Śiṃśumāra Cakra. Here the whole universe of stars is seen as the body of Viṣṇu in the form of a divine porpoise (śiṃśumāra), with Dhruva at the tail and Nārāyaṇa in the heart.

The Chariots of the Nine Planets (Chapter 12)

The Viṣṇu Purāṇa describes the chariots of the nine planets (the navagraha) in detail:

• Moon: white horses born from water; a three-wheeled chariot
• Budha: piśaṅga (reddish-brown) horses born of wind and fire
• Śukra: horses born of the earth
• Maṅgala: horses red as padmarāga (ruby), born of fire
• Bṛhaspati: a golden chariot with white horses; he moves through one rāśi (sign of the zodiac) each year
• Śani: śabala (spotted) horses
• Rāhu: a dhūsara (grey) chariot with black horses that stay yoked for ever
• Ketu: palāla-dhūmra (straw- and smoke-coloured) horses

Sources

• Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 41–44
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 24
• Viṣṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Dvitīyāṃśa, Chapters 7–12