Aruna- Hindu GodDeity"Charioteer of the Sun"

Premature Birth

Aruna was the elder of two sons born to Vinata, wife of the sage Kashyapa. Vinata had received two divine eggs, each requiring five hundred years to develop. In her impatience to see her firstborn, she broke open the first egg before its time. From it emerged Aruna, radiant but incomplete: his upper body was formed and glowing with divine light, but his legs were undeveloped and withered. Angered by his premature release, Aruna cursed his mother to five hundred years of servitude. This curse was fulfilled when Vinata lost a wager to her co-wife Kadru and became servant of the Nagas, until Garuda, Aruna's younger brother from the second egg, won her freedom.

Charioteer of Surya

Despite his withered legs, Aruna was appointed charioteer of Surya, the sun god. His name means "reddish-brown," the color of the sky just before sunrise. He sits facing backward on Surya's chariot, his body serving as a shield between the sun's fierce radiance and the earth below. Without Aruna's mediating presence, Surya's unfiltered heat would scorch the world to ashes. Each day he drives the seven-horsed solar chariot from east to west, his tawny glow the first sign each morning that the sun approaches the eastern horizon.

Father of Jatayu and Sampati

Aruna fathered two mighty birds: Jatayu and Sampati. In their youth, the brothers flew too close to the sun, and Sampati shielded Jatayu with his own wings, which were burned away by Surya's heat, leaving him earthbound for the rest of his life. Jatayu fought Ravana to prevent the abduction of Sita and died from his wounds after telling Rama which direction Ravana had fled. Sampati, still wingless, later guided Rama's allies toward Lanka by spotting the island from a mountaintop with his keen vision.