Lord Vishnu stepped forward and fastened the sea jewel round his neck. There, known as Kaustuba, it has hung ever since.
Still, they churned, the gods and demons, until a strange ripple spread over the waters and a terrible stench rose from it. The head and tail of the giant snake dropped gradually out of the hands of the fainting churners. Even Vasuki’s eyes became dull and his coils began to slip inertly off Mount Mandara’s sides. Suddenly, God Shiva placed his mouth on the waves near the ripple, and sucking it in, saved the three worlds. For this was the terrible visha—the poisonous fluid which overlaid the ambrosia to guard it. If Lord Shiva had not drunk this visha, it would have destroyed the gods, demons and men. As Lord Shiva swallowed it, it burnt a deep blue mark on his hroat. He has ever since been known as Nilakantha or Blue-throat.
When the foams of the visha had passed away, the gods and demons churned again. At last, an aged man rose slowly through the masses of the ocean foam. In his right hand he carried a gold jar of exquisite workmanship from which issued a perfume of delicious fragrance. At the sight of the aged man, whom they knew to be Dhanwantari, the demons snatched the ambrosia from his hands, trying to rob the gods of their share. Lord Vishnu intervened and took it back from tem. To punish them for their greed, he poured out the ambrosia to the gods only, ho drank it and at once became immortal, while the demons, who drank none of it, have remained mortal to this day.
But, one of the demons, Rahu by name, took the form of a celestial, and deceiving Lord Vishnu received a draught of the ambrosia. As the demon drank, the sun-god pierced his disguise and told Lord Vishnu of Rahu’s deceit. Vishnu, lifted his discus, sheared off the head of Rahu with it before the ambrosia had passed his throat. Rahu’s body fell to the ground, and, being mortal, soon rotted. But his head, having taken the ambrosia, is immortal and still endures on the universe as a planet.
But because the sun-god detected him as he drank the divine liquid and told Vishnu, Rahu’s head bears to the sun-god, an undying hatred. Sometimes, he steals up unperceived close to the bright sun-god and with a single bite swallows him. But because Rahu has no body, the sun-god in due course reappears through his enemy’s throat and once again begns to shine upon the earth in all his former splendour. And then men gather together and say that there has been an eclipse of the sun.
