Monkey King Sugriva in the Ramayana is the son of Surya and
Aruna. Aruna is the charioteer of Surya, the sun god. In the Ramayana,
Vanara King Sugriva, Hanuman and his soldiers had helped Sri Ram to trace Mata
Sita and also played a huge part in defeating Ravana and his army. Story of the origin of
the birth of Sugriva is based on Aruna taking woman form and a curse of Gautama
Rishi.
Aruna wanted to witness the dance of celestial maidens in
the heaven. For this he took the form a woman and sat among the Devas.
Aruna was next day late to report to Surya. When Surya
wanted to know the reason for being late, Aruna narrated about the last night
incident.
Surya now wanted to see the woman form of Aruna. He then
took the woman form. Surya was enamored by the beauty of Aruna who was now
Arunadevi.
Surya and Arunadevi copulated and Aruna Devi gave birth to a
male child.
Surya and Aruna entrusted the baby with Ahalya Devi the
wife of Gautama Rishi.
Ahalya Devi loved the child so much that she began to
ignore her husband.
Gautama was unhappy with this and cursed the child to become
a monkey.
Later, Indra gave the child name Sugriva.
The entire incident was precursor to the
Ram-Ravan war. Bhagavan Sri Ram needed a strong ally and this had to be the
son of Surya.