Upanishads · Rudrahṛdaya 19
॥
Devanāgarī
रुद्रः सूर्य उमा छाया तस्मै तस्यै नमो नमः । रुद्रः सोम उमा तारा तस्मै तस्यै नमो नमः
Transliteration (IAST)
rudraḥ sūrya umā chāyā tasmai tasyai namo namaḥ | rudraḥ soma umā tārā tasmai tasyai namo namaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
रुद्रः सूर्यः उमा छायाrudraḥ sūryaḥ umā chāyāRudra — the sun, Umā — the shadow
रुद्रः सोमः उमा ताराrudraḥ somaḥ umā tārāRudra — the moon, Umā — Tārā
तस्मै तस्यै नमः नमःtasmai tasyai namaḥ namaḥto him and to her, homage, homage
Translation
"Rudra — the sun, Umā — the Shadow: to him and to her, homage, homage. Rudra — the moon, Umā — Tārā: to him and to her, homage, homage."
Version
ef776af5dfb4 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The pair "sun and shadow" deserves examination, for behind it stands both a story and a thought. Chāyā, "Shadow," is, in the Purāṇas, the Sun's wife — the second, who took the place of the first. The first, Saṃjñā, could not bear her husband's heat and, departing, left her own shadow in her place, who lived with him and bore him children.
This story, considered closely, is unhappy and precise. Too great a heat makes life beside it impossible; and one lives with it not oneself, but through what one leaves of oneself — a shadow. Hence the constant qualification in Vaiṣṇava books when describing majesty: no one can stand beside it in its full measure. Arjuna, having seen the universal form, asks for the return of the former, domestic one: "show me that same form of Yours, with the crown, the mace, and the disc" (Gītā 11.46). Majesty is unbearable, and so He removes it.
The second pair, "the moon and Tārā," is of the same order of tradition: Tārā is Bṛhaspati's wife, abducted by Soma the moon, from which the war of the gods arose. That is, the pairs in this string are not taken abstractly but with histories; and each of them has its own tale, most often an unhappy one. This, to my mind, deserves special note. A book, in bowing to the highest, calls it by the names of those who had quarrels, losses, and substitutions; and thereby says that the highest does not live above these things, but within them.