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Mahāyāna — Northern Canon · Kangyur — General Sūtras

Toh 41The Sūtra of the Sun

Pāli / Sanskrit:Sūryasūtra

📖1,455 words · ~6 min read
2
Summary

Summary The Sūtra of the Sun is a short discourse providing a Buddhist account of a solar eclipse. On one occasion while the Buddha is residing in Śrāvastī, the sun is seized by Rāhu, lord of the asuras, which causes an eclipse. The god of the sun asks the Buddha for refuge, after which the Buddha urges Rāhu to release the sun. When questioned by Vemacitra, another lord of the asuras, Rāhu explains that if he had not let the sun go, his head would have split into seven pieces. This sūtra enjoys some popularity today and appears in Tibetan collections of mantras and texts for protection.

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Full translation (English)

Summary

The
Sūtra of the Sun is a short discourse
providing a Buddhist account of a solar eclipse. On one
occasion while the Buddha is residing in Śrāvastī, the sun
is seized by Rāhu, lord of the asuras, which causes an
eclipse. The god of the sun asks the Buddha for refuge,
after which the Buddha urges Rāhu to release the sun. When
questioned by Vemacitra, another lord of the asuras, Rāhu
explains that if he had not let the sun go, his head would
have split into seven pieces. This sūtra enjoys some
popularity today and appears in Tibetan collections of
mantras and texts for protection.

Acknowledgements

This sūtra was translated by Giuliano Proença, who also
prepared the introduction, the glossary, and the notes. The
English translation and ancillary materials were proofread
by Daniela Espíndola.

The translation was completed under the patronage and
supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the
Buddha.

Introduction

The Sūtra of the
Sun is a short discourse set in Śrāvastī
that presents a Buddhist account of a solar eclipse.
It describes Rāhu seizing the sun and the Buddha
calling for its release. When the eclipse begins, the
god of the sun asks the Buddha for refuge, prompting
the Buddha to demand that Rāhu let the sun go. When
questioned by the asura Vemacitra, Rāhu explains
that if he had not released the sun, his head would
have split into seven pieces.

The Sūtra of theSun is a Tibetan translation of acanonical Theravāda text and thus was probablytranslated from Pali. It belongs to a group ofthirteen late-translated sūtras (gsar du ’gyur ba), asnoted in Butön Rinchen Drup’s (1290–1364) History of Buddhism and inthe Lithang, Degé, and Urga Kangyurs. One of these sūtras, The Sūtra of the Moon (1)(Toh 42),presents an almost identical narrative concerning alunar eclipse. The Sūtra of theSun features one additional verse notfound in The Sūtra of theMoon, and the same is true of the Palicounterparts of these two texts. The equivalent ofThe Sūtra of the Sunin the Pali canon, the Sūryasutta, is included in the SaṃyuttaNikāya (SN 2.10). Apart from some occasionalvariations, the Tibetan and Pali are very closelyaligned.
The Sūtra of theSun is unique to the Theravāda tradition,but the extra verse that is missing in The Sūtra of the Moon (1) isrepresented in another similar discourse titledThe Sūtra of the Moon(2) (Toh 331),which was translated from Sanskrit in the time ofthe “early diffusion” of Buddhism to Tibet(eighth–ninth centuries). TheSūtra of the Moon (2) has Sanskrit,Chinese, and Old Uyghur parallels.
The Sūtra of theSun and The Sūtra ofthe Moon (1) are popular among Tibetanstoday, appearing in Tibetan collections ofmantras and protective texts. In the Theravādatradition, they are included in Paritta collections,which have the function of providing protectionthrough recitation.

Peter Skilling dates the translation of the thirteen
late-translated sūtras to the first decade of the
fourteenth century. The Sūtra of the
Sun is found in the Kangyurs of the
Tshalpa, the Thempangma, and the mixed lines, as
well as in some canonical collections from Western
Tibet.

The colophons of all versions of the Tshalpaline only indicate the conclusion of the sūtra,while the other collections mention the translatorsand the place where they worked: Ānandaśrī andTharpa Lotsāwa Nyima Gyaltsen Palsangpo atthe monastery of Tharpa Ling in Central Tibet.
Apart from the thirteen sūtras, Tharpa Lotsāwaalso translated several other texts that arepreserved in the tantra section of the Kangyur,working mainly with Indian and Nepalesepaṇḍitas. Notably, Tharpa Lotsāwa was one ofButön’s teachers. Ānandaśrī is described in the colophon of theĀryamaitrīsūtra,which he also translated together with Künga Gyaltsen ThuptenPalsangpo, as a prominent paṇḍitafrom Sri Lanka, but little is known about how or why he came to be infourteenth century Tibet or how long he stayed there.
It is interesting to note that this Tibetantranslation gives the Sanskrit title Sūryasūtra, while itspresumed Theravāda source would have had the titleSūryasutta. It ispossible that the translators and later editorsSanskritized the title in accordance with thetranslation practices of the time.

The French Sanskritist and Orientalist Léon Feer
studied Buddhist accounts of eclipses, including the
legend of Rāhu according to Hindu and Buddhist
texts. He translated Daniel John Gogerly’s English
translation of the Pali Candimasutta into French and produced his
own French translations of The
Sūtra of the Moon (1) and The Sūtra of the Moon (2).
His notes are detailed and rich in explanations. He
finalized and published the unfinished work of Paul
Grimblot on some Paritta texts, presenting the Pali
equivalent to the Sūtra of the
Sun, excerpts of its commentary in the
Aṭṭhakathā, and
its translation into French.

Peter Skilling has studied the thirteenlate-translated sūtras (Toh 31–43)in detail, examining the location of these textsin the Kangyur, and their colophons, contents,translators, and possible original language. Henotes parallels, dates the translations, and reviewsscholarship on these works.
As far as we know, a complete translation of theTibetan version of The Sūtra ofthe Sun into Western languages has notbeen published. Nonetheless, there are multipletranslations of The Sūtra ofthe Sun from Pali: Feer’s translation intoFrench (1871), Wilhelm Geiger’s translation intoGerman (1930),Rhys Davids’s translation into English (1950), and arecent translation into English by Bhikkhu Sujato(2018).

Our translation is based on the Tibetan text as
found in the sūtra section of the Degé Kangyur, but
we note variant readings from the witnesses of the
Comparative Edition (dpe
bsdur ma), the Stok Palace Kangyur, and
the Bardan Collection. In addition, we have compared
the Pali with the Tibetan and noted cases where the
Pali presents different readings. We occasionally
refer to The Sūtra of the Moon
(2) and its Sanskrit parallel.

Our translation benefitted from Feer’s notes onThe Sūtra of the Moon(1) and The Sūtra ofthe Moon (2), as well as from histranslations. We also consulted Geiger’s translationof the Pali Sūryasutta into German, and Sujato’stranslation into English.

The Translation

The Sūtra of the Sun

Respectful homage
to the noble Three Jewels!

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was
dwelling in Śrāvastī, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. At that time the god Sūrya was seized
by Rāhu, lord of the asuras. Then the god Sūrya,
recollecting and taking the Blessed One to
heart, recited this verse:

“I bow to the heroic Buddha.

May you swiftly liberate all beings!

As I have come into confinement

I take refuge in you.”

Then the Blessed One, for the sake of the godSūrya, addressed Rāhu, lord of the asuras, withthese verses:

“Since buddhas have compassion for the world,

Sūrya took refuge

In the Worthy One, the Tathāgata.

Therefore, Rāhu, set the sun free!

“The sun, circle of mighty splendor,

Illuminates darkness with light.

Rāhu, do not conceal the sun in the sky!

Set this sun free, Rāhu!”

Thereupon Rāhu, lord of the asuras, set the god Sūrya
free and hurriedly approached Vemacitra, lord of the asuras.
He then sat to one side, displeased, agitated, and with all his body hairs
bristling. Vemacitra, lord of the asuras,
now questioned Rāhu, lord of the asuras, in verse:

“Why, Rāhu, did you release

The sun in such a fright?

You are a very miserable sight.

Why did you approach in fear?”

He replied:

“Had I, hearing the Buddha’s verse,

Not then released the sun

My head would have split into seven pieces

And my life would be without happiness.”

This concludes “The
Sūtra of the Sun.”

Notes

Bibliography

Tibetan Source Texts

Western Translations and

References

Three Jewelstriratnadkon mchog gsumདཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ།
blessed onebhagavatbcom ldan ’dasབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།bhagavant
asuraasuraasuralha ma yinལྷ་མ་ཡིན།
buddhabuddhasangs rgyasསངས་རྒྱས།buddha
tathāgatatathāgatatathāgatade bzhin gshegs paདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ།
worthy onearhatdgra bcomདགྲ་བཅོམ།dgra bcom paདགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།arahant
happinesssukhabde baབདེ་བ།sukhaṅ
goddevaputralha’i buལྷའི་བུ།devaputta
Rāhurāhusgra gcan ’dzinསྒྲ་གཅན་འཛིན།sgra gcanསྒྲ་གཅན།rāhu
Sūryasunsūryanyi maཉི་མ།sūriya
Vemacitravemacitrathags bzangs risཐགས་བཟངས་རིས།vepacitti
Balibalistobs canསྟོབས་ཅན།bali
Anāthapiṇḍadaanāthapiṇḍadamgon med zas sbyinམགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན།anāthapiṇḍika
ĀnandaśrīānandaśrīA nanda shrIཨཱ་ནནད་ཤྲཱི།
Nyima Gyaltsen Palsangponyi ma rgyal mtshan dpal bzang poཉི་མ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ།
Śrāvastīśrāvastīmnyan yodམཉན་ཡོད།sāvatthī
Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Parkjetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥrgyal byed tshal mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra baརྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཚལ་མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།
Translation source: Interpreted by AILicense: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 (84000.co) · VI: bản dịch AI, chờ đối chiếu · VI removed 2026-08-27 to honour the ND (no-derivatives) term

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