rAhu
rAhu/ m. ( fr. √ raB ; cf. graha and √ grah ) ‘the Seizer’, N. of a Daitya or demon who is supposed to seize the sun and moon and thus cause eclipses (he is fabled as a son of Vipra-citti and Siṃhikā and as having a dragon's tail; when the gods had churned the ocean for the Amṛta or nectar of immortality, he disguised himself like one of them and drank a portion; but the Sun and Moon revealed the fraud to Viṣṇu , who cut off Rāhu 's head, which thereupon became fixed in the stellar sphere, and having become immortal through drinking the Amṛta , has ever since wreaked its vengeance on the Sun and Moon by occasionally swallowing them; while at the same time the tail of the demon became Ketu [ q.v. ] and gave birth to a numerous progeny of comets and fiery meteors; in astron. Rāhu is variously regarded as a dragon's head, as the ascending node of the moon [or point where the moon intersects the ecliptic in passing northwards], as one of the planets [ cf. graha ], and as the regent of the south-west quarter [ Laghuj. ] ; among Buddhists many demons are called Rāhu ), AV. &c. &c.