________________
COSMOGRAPHY
233 sašrī and āditya: “making the begin" (of chronology). With Rāhu it is similar (Sūrap. 286b). Some take him for a black mass (poggala) of which kind there are said to be 15 and all after the moon and the sun, while others take him for an ordinary god who either seizes or releases them below (buddh'antenam) or at their head muddh'ant. with his right or his left arm. But Rāhu is (Viy 474a=Sūrap 287a) also a powerful god with 10 names and with palaces of five colours; by penetrating (viivayar) he passes over to the side vis-à-vis of his advent, he then stands to the side, he withdraws, he passes right through, or, finally, he obscures the moon and the sun completely. Such observations prove spectacularly plain when compared with the popular belief saying (as is mentioned) that Rāhu has either seized or swallowed the moon and the sun, resp., that by doing so Rāhi's belly explodes, etc. Viy. 575a=Sūrap 288a distinguishes between the dhuva-R. causing the moon to wane and the pavva-R. causing lunar and solar eclipses, the former occurring every 42 months at the most and the latter every 48 years at the most. The waning and the waxing of the moon, however, are explained by Rāhu's vimāna, which invariably accompanies the moon at a distance of 4 angula below, successively obscuring the moon by of her disk for 15 days (kinhapakkha) — with one remaining free at its uppermost partand releasing it at the same rate for another 15 days (sukka-p.). Those of the disk of the moon come up to its of the Rāhuvimāna.
Both the god of the moon and the god of the sun bear the emblem of their qualities in their diadems. They measure 7 rayana (Thān. 405b). Their palaces (vimāna) have the shape of half a kavittha fruit measuring in diameter with the moons, i joy. with the suns, joy. with the planets, 1 kosa with the Naksatra, and kosal with the fixed stars (1 c. 1 and joy.). Their thickness is one half of it. They do not move of their own strength, but 4,000 gods are pulling the moons and the sunsa in all directions, 2,000 are doing so with the
1. Up to 500 dhanu Umāsvātı on T. 4, 14 2 As to the pl see below
