Cite
MLA
“Shani Dev.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/shani/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Shani Dev. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/shani/
नीलाञ्जनसमाभासं रविपुत्रं यमाग्रजम्।
छायामार्तण्डसम्भूतं तं नमामि शनैश्चरम्॥
nīlāñjanasamābhāsaṃ raviputraṃ yamāgrajam |
chāyāmārtaṇḍasambhūtaṃ taṃ namāmi śanaiścaram ||
Dark as collyrium, in black or blue robes, holding a bow and arrow, an axe and a trishula, or a sword and danda. He rides a great crow or vulture; some texts give him an iron chariot drawn by eight horses. At Shingnapur there is no image at all, only a five-and-a-half-foot black stone under the open sky.
01Son of the Sun and the Shadow
Surya’s wife Sanjna could not bear his heat, so she left her shadow, Chhaya, in her place and went away. Shani is Chhaya’s son by Surya, and so the Navagraha Stotra, carried in the name of Maharshi Vyasa, salutes him as raviputraṃ yamāgrajam, son of the Sun and elder brother of Yama, chāyāmārtaṇḍasambhūtam, born of Chhaya and Martanda. He is the slowest of the grahas: Saturn takes about two and a half years to cross each rashi and close to thirty to go round the zodiac, which is why his name means the one who moves slowly. In the Brahmavaivarta Purana, Krishna says that among the planets he is Shani.
02The judge of karma
In Jyotisha, Shani is counted with Mangala, Rahu and Ketu among the hard grahas, but devotees speak of him as a judge: he gives each person the fruit of what they have done. The years when he passes through the rashi before the Moon’s sign, the sign itself and the one after, about seven and a half years in all, are called sade sati, and people take extra care in them. Saturday, Shanivara, is his day. Many pour mustard oil over his stone, give black sesame and black cloth, feed crows, and pray to Hanuman or to Kala Bhairava, whom the tradition holds to be Shani’s guru. Shani Amavasya, a new moon on a Saturday, draws the biggest crowds.
03Shingnapur and Thirunallar
At Shani Shingnapur in Ahmednagar district, the village tells how a flood on the Panasnala stream brought down a black slab that bled when a shepherd’s stick touched it; that night Shani came to the headman in a dream and asked to be set up under the open sky, with no roof. He still stands so, oiled every day, and the village is known for houses kept without locked doors in the faith that he guards them. In Tamil Nadu, Thirunallar near Karaikal is the Shani sthala of the Navagraha circuit, sung by Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar. Temple tradition says King Nala of the Mahabharata was freed from Shani’s grip after bathing in its tank.
In the texts
- Navagraha Stotra of Vyasa, verse 7
- Brahmavaivarta Purana
- Surya Siddhanta
- Mahabharata, Vana Parva (Nala-upakhyana)
