According to different mythological stories and folklore – The Sun God known was Surya had many wives, the exact number is not known.

One of Surya’s wife was named as Sanjana or Saranya ( daughter of Vishwakarma – the celestial architect) – she was quite beautiful but could not handle the brightness and light that her husband emanated.

Out of desperation – she created a clone of herself, who is known as Chhaya and Surya continues to believe that it is Sanjana, until one fine day when his son Yama ( the God of Death) gets cursed by his own mother.

Surya finds it quite weird and disgusting that a mother would curse her own son. Upon inquiry with Yama – he realizes that it is not Sanjana but her clone playing the role of his wife and the mother of his kids.

When he receives the news – he quickly goes on a mission to find his wife Sanjana who was then living with her father. It is said that Sanjana took the form of a mare and ran away into the forest and Surya had to morph into a horse to find her. It is in this horse format meeting that led to the birth of the twin gods Ashwini Kumars, who later became reputed as the physicians or healers of the gods.

There is also a story of how Surya dealt with his son Shani( Saturn), which I will share sometime later.

As mentioned earlier, my intention behind sharing these stories is to bring about an awareness regarding the very basics of Indian astrology.

Stay tuned for more 🙂