Rahu
Rahu is the severed head of an asura called Svarbhānu, that swallows the sun causing eclipses. He is depicted in art as a serpent with no body riding a chariot drawn by eight black horses.
↻ synthesized from 6 sources
When
- First attested
- 500 BCE
- Attested period
- 0 – 2020
- Historical notes
- Attested in the Mahabharata epic.
Relationships
- co occurs with
- Vritra, Ganesha, Bhumidevi, Kadru, Aruṇa, Brahma, Vinata, Kashyapa Prajapati, Sūryaprabha, Candra, Candraprabha Bodhisattva, Shachi, Dānaveghasa Asuras, Kālakañjakas, Vepacitti, Pahārāda, Kharakaṇṭha, Indra, Antaboga, Ananta Shesha, Gogaji, Nagnechiya Maa, Patanjali, Nāgas, Garuda, Śeṣa, Ashura
- aspect of
- Svarbhānu
- allied with
- Ketu
- enemy of
- Chandra, Vishnu, Sūrya, Candimā Devaputta, Ketu
- sibling of
- Bali
- syncretized with
- Verocana
- manifested by
- Svarbhānu
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“Rahu is the severed head of an asura called Svarbhānu, that swallows the sun causing eclipses. He is depicted in art as a serpent with no body riding a chariot drawn by eight black horses.”
#4676 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“The epic narrates that in another tale that Surya began burning intensely, angered by the attacks of Rahu (Rahu swallowing Surya is described to cause solar eclipses in Hindu mythology).”
#16460 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“A demon named Rahu disguised himself as a Brahmin and attempted to drink the nectar. Surya (the Sun) and Chandra recognized the deception and alerted Vishnu, who severed Rahu's head with his Sudarshana Chakra. However, because Rahu had consumed the nectar, his head and body became immortal, forming the entities Rahu and Ketu.”
#19221 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“The head of the snake is represented by Rahu ("Dragon's head") and its tail by Ketu ("Dragon's tail"). If in the zodiacal chart of an individual all the seven major planets are hemmed between Rahu and Ketu in the reverse order (anticlockwise) it is said to denote Kalasarpa dosha”
#35043 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001