The Story of Brahmand

The Children of Surya

Suryadev the eldest son of devi Aditti, married devi Sandhya also known as Saranyu and Sanjana, daughter of Visvkarma Dev, the architect of gods. They were much in love and had a son who was fortold to be as bright as his father and learned. This son was Satyavrata Manu, the first king of solar dynasty and also the king saved by vishnu in his matsya avtar. With time the brightness of sun god increased and devi sandhya was unable to bear it. Whenever he would look at her, she would shield her eyes. One day when he forced her to look at him she trembled and closed her eyes. Distraught over the assumed repulsion, by his eternal companion, the sun god cursed her that she would have a daughter who would tremble and keep changing course like her and a son who would close his eyes towards any obstruction or relation in his goal. Thus were born the first twins, Yam or the god of Death and Dharma and his twin sister Yami also called Kalindi or River Yamuna. Sandhya was saddened over the turn of events and she realised she could no longer stay with her husband, nor could she take her children away or abandon them. So she decided to find a substitute. Seeing her shadow she realised that her shadow knew about each of her activity and as it lacked its own identity, it was ideal for her. She created devi Chaya from her shadows who resembled her lika a twin sister and bade her to fulfill all her duties while she did tapasya to become able to bear the sun god. Being a shadow, Chaya only thrived on the sun gods brilliance and she was able to bear it. This pleased Surya dev to such a extent that he didn't suspect any difference in Chaya. Time passed and Chaya gave birth to a son and a set of twins like Sandhya. They were the  Savarni Manu, called so because resemboed Surya, eight Manu, progenitor of mankind and the twins Shani dev and Bhadra. Some claim the river Tapti to be also Chaya's daughter.  Post their birth Chaya used to pay more attention to her children according to Yama, making him suspect that she was not his mother. One day he kicked her and dragged her to Suryadev. Chaya's anfer at being kicked by her son like child was great and she cursed him to be lame on the foot that kicked her. This affirmed Suryadev and Yama's belief about her identity.
On being asked Chaya told the whole story. Suryadev went to Visvakarma amd requested him to take an ansh of his radiance so that Sandhya would be able to bear him. He then went to Sandhya and found her doing penace in the form of a mare. So he took the form of a horse to win her heart and make her realise the penace was over. From their love were born twins the Ashwini kumaras with heads of horses. They are the gods of healing and mediceine. He then returned to his abode. Chaya dissapeared into Sandhya and became her shadow again. However, now Chaya's children were unhappy, the most angry being Shani. He was a witness to Yama's misbehaviour against his mother and was hurt that despite giving love and fulfilling all of Sandhya's duties selflessly his mother didn't get any acceptance. Nor did Sandhya give him and his siblings any motherly love. The whole incident reeked with Sandhya's selfishness to him.
Disheartened, Shani did Mahadev's tapasya and begged him to give him his mother back, to give her due as she was selfless and despite objecting to Sandhya's plans she had to givein to her creator. He didn't want any revenge from Sandhya and Yama, rather only his mother's acceptance in the household.  Pleased with Shani's selfless behaviour towards his mother, Mahadev creates Devi Chaya again and asked Suryadev to acdept her as his second wife, to which he readily agreed as he also had developed feelings for Chaya over the course of years. He commended Shani on his maturity and feeling of justice and declared him to be the Karmphaldata, one who gave the just consequences of various Karmas and also made him one of the navgrahas. Thus, Shani became the balancer of justice.