English
SU-J^TAMAK Son of Ugrasena and brother of Kansa. He was king of the >S'urasenas. When Kansa was overpowered in battle by Knslma, Su-niiman went to succour him, but was en- countered and slain by Bala-rama. SU-NANDA. A princess of Chedi who befriended Dama- yanti when she was deserted by her husband. SUNDA. Sunda and Upasunda, of the Maha-bharata, were two Daityas, sons of iJ^isunda, for whose destruction the Apsaras Tilottama was sent down from heaven. They quarrelled for her, and killed each other. See /S'umbha. SU-PARiVAS. ' Fine-winged' " Beings of superhuman char- acter, as Garu6?a, and other birds of equally fanciful description ; one of those classes first created by the Brahmadikas, and in- cluded in the daily presentation of water to deceased ancestors, &c." — Wilson. SU-PARaS'WA. a fabulous bird in the Ramayarea. He was son of Sampati and nephew of Ja/ayus. SU-PRIYA. ' Very dear.' Chief of the Gandharvas. >S'URA. A Yadava king who ruled over the /Siirasenas at Mathura ; he was father of Vasu-deva and Kunti, and grand- father of Iv?'ish?za. SURA. Wine or spirituous liquor, personified as Sura-devi, a goddess or nymph produced at the churning of the ocean. SURABHI. The ' cow of plenty,' produced at the churning of the ocean, who granted every desire, and is reverenced as " the fountain of milk and curds. " See Kama-dhenu and NandinL SURAS. In the- Vedas, a class of beings connected with Siirya, the sun. The inferior deities who inhabit Swarga ; a god in general. According to some, the word is allied to swar, 'heaven;' others think it to have sprung from the deriva- 3IO SU-RASA—SURYA. tiou assigned to asura, and as a-sura is said to signify ' not a god,' sura has come to mean 'god.' SU-KASA. A Rakshasi, mother of the Kiigas. ^^Hien Hanii- man was on his flight to Lanka against EavaTia, she tried to save her relative by swallowing Hanuman bodily. To avoid this Hanuman distended his body and continued to do so, while she stretched her mouth till it was a hundred leagues wide. Then he suddenly shrank up to the size of a thumb, darted through her, and came out at her right ear. aSURASEXAS. iN'ame of a people, the Suraseni of Arrian. Their capital was Mathura on the Yamuna, which Manu calls /S'iirasena. ^RPA-]^AKHA. 'Having nails like winnowing-fans.' Sister of RavaTza, This Rakshasi admired the beauty of Rama and fell in love with him. When she made advances to Rama he referred her to Lakshmawa, and LakshmaTza in like manner sent her back to Rama. Enraged at this double rejection, she fell upon Sita, and Rama was obliged to interfere forcibly for the protection of his wife. He called out to LakshmaTza to disfigure the violent Rakshasi, and Lakshma^/?a cut off her nose and ears. She flew to her brothers for revenge, and this brought on the war between Rama and Ravawa. She descanted to Rava?ia on the beauty of Sita, and instigated his carrying her off*, and finally she cursed liim just before the engagement in which he was killed. StJRYA. The sun or its deity. He is one of the three chief deities in the Yedas, as the great source of light and warmth, but the references to him are more poetical than precise. Some- times he is identical with Savit7'i and Aditya, sometimes he is distinct. " Sometimes he is called son of Dj'aus, sometimes of Aditi. In one passage, Ushas, the dawn, is his wife, in another he is called the child of the dawns ; he moves through the sky in a chariot drawn by seven ruddy horses or mares." Surya has several wives, but, according to later legends, his twin sons the Aswins, who are ever young and handsome and ride in a golden car as precursors of Ushas, the dawn, were born of a nymph called Aswini, from her having concealed herself in the form of a mare. In the Ramayawa and Purrmas, Surya is said to be the son of Kasyapa and Aditi, but in the Ramilyawa he is otherwise referred to as a son of Bralima. His wife was Sanjna, daughter SUR YA—SUR YA-KANTA. 311 of Yiswa-karma, and by her he had tliree children, the Manu Vaivaswata, Yama, and the goddess Yami, or the Yamuna river. His effulgence was so overpowering that his wife gave him Chhaya (shade) for a handmaid, and retired into the forest to devote herself to religion. While thus engaged, and in the form of a mare, the sun saw her and ajiproached her in the form of a horse. Hence sprang the two Aswins and Eevanta. Surya brought back his wife Sanjna to his home, and her father, the sage Yiiwa-karma, placed the luminary on his lathe and cut away an eighth of his effulgence, trimming him in every part except the feet. The fragments that were cut off fell blazing to the earth, and from them Yiswa-karma formed the discus of Yishmi, the trident of A^iva, the weapon of Kuvera, the lance of Ivarttikeya, and the weapons of the other gods. According to the Maha-bhiirata, Karwa was his illegitimate son by KuntT. He is also fabled to be the father of /Sani and the monkey chief Su- griva. The Manu Yaivaswata was father of Ikshwaku, and from him, the grandson of the sun, the Surya-vansa, or Solar race of kings, draws its orio;in. In the form of a horse Siirva commu- nicated the '\Yhite Yajur-veda to Yajnawalkya, and it was he who bestowed on Satrajit the Syamantaka gem. A set of terrific Rakshasas called Mandehas made an attack upon him and sought to devour him, but were dispersed by his light. According to the Yishmi Pura^ia he was seen by Sattrajita in "his proper form," " of dwarfish stature, with a body like burnished copper, and with slightly reddish eyes." Surya is represented in a chariot drawn by seven horses, or a horse with seven heads, surrounded with rays. His charioteer is Aru?ia or Yivaswat, and his city Yivaswati or BhaswatL There are temples of the sun, and he receives worship. The names and epithets of the sun are number- less. He is Savitn, ' the nourisher ; ' Yivaswat, ' the brilliant ; ' Bhaskara, ' light-maker ; ' Dina-kara, ' day-maker ; ' Arha-pati, ' lord of day ; ' Loka-chakshuh, ' eye of the world ; ' Karma- sakshT, ' witness of the deeds (of men) ; ' Graha-raja, ' king of the constellations ; ' Gabhastiman, ' possessed of rays ; ' Sahasra- kira?za, ' having a thousand rays ; ' Yikarttana, ' shorn of his beams' (by Yiswa-karma); Marta?z^a, ' descended from M?ita?i6Za,' &c. Surya's wives are called Savarwa, Swati, and Maha-virya. SUR Y ATLANTA. 'The sun-gem.' A crystal supposed to be formed of condensed rays of the sun, and though cool to the 312 SURYA -SIDDHANTA —S UTRA . touch, to give out heat in the sun's rays. There is a similar moon-stone. It is also called Dahanopala. See Chandra-kanta. SURYA SIDDHANTA. A celebrated work on astronomy, said to have been revealed by the sun (Siirya). It has been edited in the BiUiotheca Indica by Hall, and there are other editions. It has been translated by Whitney and Burgess. SURYA- YAN/SA. The Solar race. A race or lineage of Kshatriyas which sprank from Ikshwaku, grandson of the sun. Rama was of this race, and so were many other great kings and heroes. Many Rajputs claim descent from this and the other great hneage, the Lunar race. The Rana of Udaypur claims to be of the Surya-vansa, and the Jharejas of Cutch and Sindh assert a descent from the Chandra-vansa. There were two dynasties of the Solar race. The elder branch, which reigned at Ayodhya, descended from Ikshwaku through his eldest son, Yikukshi. The other dynasty, reigning at Mithila, descended from another of Ikshwaku's sons, named Nimi. The lists of these two dynasties on the opposite page are taken from the Yishwu Pura?^a. The lists given by other authorities show some discrepancies, but they agree in general as to the chief names. SU->S^ARMAN. A king of Tri-gartta, who attacked the Raja of Yira^a, and defeated him and made him prisoner, but Bhima rescued the Raja and made Su-5arman prisoner. SUSHENA. I. A son of K?-ishwa and Rukmim. 2. A phy- sician in the army of Rama, Avho brought the dead to life and performed other miraculous cures. >SUSHiVA. An Asura mentioned in the i^/g-veda as kiUed by Indra. SUaS'RUTA. a medical writer whose date is uncertain, but his work was translated into Arabic before the end of the eighth century. The book has been printed at Calcutta. There is a Latin translation by Heple* and one in German by Yullers. SUTA. ' Charioteer.' A title given to Kar??a. SU-TiKSHA^A. A hermit sage who dwelt in the Da/iiaka forest, and was visited by Riima and Sita. SUTRA. ' A thread or string.