Samjna was the daughter of Vishwakarma, the divine architect. When she became the wife of Surya, she could not stand his heat, so she practiced austerities (tapas) in order to create a substitute. Finally, after having three children—Manu (the first man), Yama (god of death), and Yami (goddess of the Yamuna River)— by Surya, she had acquired enough power (siddhis) to create Chaya, her own shadow self. Samjna had many years of peace (and coolness). Chaya and Surya had three children—Sanaischara, Manu (not one of the Manus), and Tapati. Chaya had done fairly well at raising all six children, but one day she cursed Yama. Because a mother would never curse her own son, Surya knew that she was not really Yama’s mother. He decided to meditate and realized that Samjna had taken the form of a mare. So Surya took the form of a stallion and from their love play came the Asvin twins named Nasatya and Dasra. They also had another handsome son named Revanta.
The Bhavishya Purana differed in details about the children of each of Surya’s wives. A daughter of Chaya in this account was named Tapati (daughter of heat, tapas). Tapati married King Samvarana after quite a romantic story and give birth to the emperor Kuru, from whom came the Kaurava line.
