Rāhu
The moon's phases and the eclipses are one god's work: a dark vimāna that travels just below the moon and slides across its face.
Rāhu is a Jyotiṣka god whose vimāna is dark, and it moves immediately beneath the moon. The commentaries distinguish two workings: a constant Rāhu whose slow slide across the moon's face makes the waxing and waning of every month, and an occasional Rāhu whose passing makes the eclipse. That two-fold account is commentarial rather than sūtra, and this atlas says so rather than flattening it.
The Digambara reckoning gives the sun its own coverer, Ketu, alongside Rāhu for the moon - noted here as the other tradition's account.
Nothing is swallowed and nothing burns: a dark palace passes in front of a bright one, on schedule, forever.
Measurements and counts
| Nature | a Jyotiṣka god with a dark vimāna |
|---|---|
| Path | just below the moon |
| The phases | the constant covering - commentarial account |
| The eclipse | the occasional covering |
| Digambara | adds Ketu for the sun |