Chhaya

In the oldest strata of the tradition the look-alike substitute figure appears in Vedic material (Rigvedic layers) as a woman called Savarna or Sadrisha ('same-kind') placed in the household of the sun-god in place of Saranyu/Sanjna. In later epic and Purāṇic retellings that double is explicitly reinterpreted as Chhaya, literally the 'shadow' or 'shade' (Sanskrit chāyā), produced as Saranyu/Sanjna's shadow or reflection and left with Surya when Saranyu departs (often because she cannot endure Surya's radiance). Textual variants persist: some sources treat Chhaya as the shadow-born substitute, while others (e.g., Bhagavata Purana) present her genealogically as a sister of Sanjna (daughter of Vishvakarma). Across these accounts she becomes the mother of children (most commonly Shani, Tapti, Savarni Manu) whose origins provide etiologies for moral and cosmic functions.

Descriptions in the surviving summaries emphasize Chhaya's resemblance to Saranyu/Sanjna: she is a 'look-alike' (Sadrisha, Savarna) or shadow-image/reflection rather than a distinctively described figure. Specific physical details beyond her being the same in outward appearance as Surya's true wife are not given in the cited sources. Purāṇic iconographic prescriptions (Markandeya Purana, Vishnudharmottara Purana) instruct that images of Surya include Chhaya among his consorts, indicating an established pictorial presence beside the sun god.

The sources frame Chhaya's functions narratively: she stands in as a substitute-wife for Saranyu/Sanjna and thereby bears children by Surya (accounts vary in which children are attributed to her). She demonstrates humanlike domestic behaviors and partiality toward her own offspring; this partiality is the trigger for conflict in the myths. Chhaya also pronounces a damaging curse upon Yama in some versions (e.g., Harivamsa/Markandeya Purana variants), an act which in the narratives has tangible consequences later mitigated by Surya. The texts treat these acts as mythic agency within family dynamics rather than cataloguing a suite of universal supernatural powers.