ราหู

Thai

1: Rāhu devouring serpents, mural painting of Wat Mahathat, Phetchaburi, Thailand

1: Rāhu (middle) trying to swallow the moon, Indian relief, 10th century

Alternative forms

Alternative forms

• ร่าห์
• ราหุ

 

Etymology

From Pali rāhu (“Rāhu”) or Sanskrit राहु (rāhu, “Rāhu”). Cognate with Khmer រាហុ (riəhoʼ).

Pronunciation

Orthographic		ราหู r ā h ū
Phonemic		รา-หู r ā – h ū
Romanization	Paiboon	raa-hǔu
	Royal Institute	ra-hu
(standard) IPA(key)		/raː˧.huː˩˩˦/(R)

Noun

ราหู • (raa-hǔu)

1. (Hindu and Buddhist mythology) (พระ~) Rāhu: the demon that devours the sun and moon and thus causes eclipses, often depicted to have dark skin and to be without the lower part of the body due to it having been severed by God Viṣṇu, who caught him stealing a divine nectar.
2. (slang, derogatory, offensive) dark-skinned person.
3. (Hindu astrology) (ดาว~, ดาวพระ~, พระ~) Rāhu: the seventh of the nine influential stars navagraha.
4. (zoology) (ปลา~) any of the various marine fish of the genera Manta and in the family or subfamily .

See also

• (influential stars) เคราะห์ (krɔ́); อาทิตย์ (aa-tít), จันทร์ (jan), อังคาร (ang-kaan), พุธ (pút), เสาร์ (sǎo), พฤหัสบดี (prʉ́-hàt-sà-bɔɔ-dii), ราหู (raa-hǔu), ศุกร์ (sùk), เกตุ (gèet)