Bhagavad Gita · Mahabharata Codex

Vivasvan

विवस्वान् · vivasvān

The sun god; first to receive the teaching of yoga

Krishna says he taught this to the sun before he taught it to Arjuna.

Vivasvan, 'the brilliant one', is a name of Surya, the sun. At the start of chapter 4 Krishna traces the teaching back to him: Vivasvan passed it to his son Manu, and Manu to Ikshvaku, and so it came down through the royal sages until it was lost. Arjuna objects that the sun is far older than Krishna, and the answer opens the teaching on divine birth.