Saṃjñā, Chāyā and the Birth of the Aśvins

This account is told in the Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, in the Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 19. Saṃjñā, the wife of Bhagavān Sūrya, could not bear his heat. She made a shadow of herself, Chāyā, to stay in her place and went away as a mare. Bhagavān Sūrya followed her as a horse. They met at the river Gautamī in Janasthāna, and the Aśvins were born.

Saṃjñā makes Chāyā and leaves

Āditya, who is Sūrya, is the eldest son of Kaśyapa. He is the eye of the three worlds. His rays are hot and strong, and all beings honour him. His wife was Ushā, also called Saṃjñā, the most beautiful woman in the three worlds. She was the daughter of Tvashṭṛ, the divine craftsman. Ushā bore Sūrya two sons, Manu and Yama, and a daughter, the holy river Yamunā.

She could not bear Sūrya’s heat. She could not stay, but she did not wish simply to leave her husband and children. So she made a shadow, Chāyā, in her own form. It was so perfect that no one could tell it from her. She told the shadow: “Be like me. Look after my husband and children in my absence. Till I come back, be the beloved of my husband. Reveal this to neither my children nor my husband.”

Chāyā agreed. Saṃjñā left her home in the sun and went to her father Tvashṭṛ. He told her to go back to her husband’s house, as is right for a married woman. She refused again and again. She went instead to the northern Kuru country. There she took the form of a mare and did hard tapas (austerity), thinking steadily of her fierce husband.

Chāyā’s partiality and Yama’s foot

Meanwhile Chāyā lived with Sūrya and bore him more children: Manu Sāvarṇi, Śani, and a wicked daughter, Vishṭi. Chāyā treated her own children and Saṃjñā’s children differently. Yama saw that his stepmother favoured her own children. He became angry and kicked Chāyā. In her upset Chāyā gave Yama a śāpa (a curse): “May your foot become putrefied.”

Yama’s foot began to rot. He went weeping to his father Sūrya and told him what had happened: “She cursed me. A true mother never gets angry even if children act against her wish. She is not my mother.”

Sūrya meditated and understood: “This is Chāyā, not Ushā. My true wife, the daughter of Tvashṭṛ, is doing tapas in the northern Kuru in the form of a mare.”

The meeting at the Gautamī

Sūrya set out to find his wife. He knew she had taken the form of a mare, so he took the form of a horse and went to the northern Kuru. Saṃjñā, in her mare form, saw a horse rushing towards her, full of desire. She did not know it was her husband. She was afraid and ran south. She crossed the Bhāgīrathī, the Narmadā and other rivers, forests and gardens, and the Vindhya mountain.

Frightened and weary, she came at last to the Gautamī at Janasthāna. She had heard that ṛshis lived there who could protect her. She entered the river and took shelter in the āśrama of the ṛshis.

The horse, who was Sūrya, followed her. The ṛshis of Janasthāna tried to stop the horse. Sūrya was angry at being stopped and laid a śāpa on them: “Since you have stopped me you will become banyan trees.”

But the ṛshis saw with the eye of knowledge that the horse was the husband of Ushā. They praised Sūrya with great joy. While they were praising him, the horse came near the mare. The horse’s face touched the mare’s face. Saṃjñā then knew that this was her husband, and she let his seed fall from her mouth into the Gaṅgā. From that seed the Aśvins were born in the river Gaṅgā at Janasthāna.

Tvashṭṛ reduces Sūrya’s brightness

A great company came to the Gautamī to see this wonder. It was made up of devas, siddhas, ṛshis, rivers, cows, healing herbs and the lights of the sky. Sūrya’s own chariot came, with Aruṇa his charioteer. Yama, Manu, Varuṇa, Śani, Yamunā, Tāpī, Mahānadī and Tvashṭṛ himself came too.

Sūrya then spoke to his father-in-law Tvashṭṛ: “O Tvashṭṛ, mount me on the lathe and chisel off my splendorous parts to please Ushā who has performed excellent tapas. Cut off my parts until she finds herself pleased.”

Tvashṭṛ did so in the presence of Soma-nātha.

The tīrthas

• The place where Tvashṭṛ cut is known as Prabhāsa.
• The place where the Aśvins were born is called Aśvatīrtha.
• The āśrama of the five banyan trees, cursed by Sūrya, is called Bhānutīrtha.
• The meeting of the rivers Aruṇā and Varuṇā with the Gautamī is very auspicious.
• In this region there are 27,000 holy tīrthas of the devas who gathered to see this divine event.

Sources

• Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 19