RAHN, ran, JOHANN RUDOLF (1841—). A Swiss art-historian, born at Zurich. After study ing at the universities of Zurich, Bonn. and Ber lin and investigating in Italy the art-monuments of the early Christian Era, he established himself as privat-docent in his native city, where he was appointed professor at the university in 1877, and at the Polytechnicum in 1883. His prin cipal works include: Gesehichte der bildenden Kiinste in der Schweiz von den iiltesten Zeiteis Lis zum Schloss des Mittelalters (1876) ; Kunst tind Wanderstudien aus der Schweiz (1883) ; Schweizer Stadte int Jlittelalter (1889); Die mittelalterlichen Kunstdenkmiiler des Kantons Tessin (1893) ; and similar treatises on other cantons. In 1879 he became editor of the Anzeiger fiir schweizerisehe Altertumskunde.
RAHU, (Skt. Rahu, the seizer, from rabh, Gk. NaiPciveev, lambanein, to seize). In Indian mythology, the son of Vipracitti and Sim hika, and the demon who is the cause of the eclipses of sun and moon. At the churning of the milk-ocean, Rahn, one of the Daityas or demon',, came unnoticed among the gods and ob tained a portion of the ambrosia thus produced.
His head was cut off by Vishnu; but the nectar had reached his throat and consequently his head had already become immortal. Out of hatred for the sun and moon, who had informed on hint, he now pursues them with implacable hatred, seizing them at intervals, and thus caus ing their eclipses. According to a later form of the legend both the head and the tail of the demon called Ketu ascended to heaven, and there still produce the eclipses of sun and moon either by swallowing them or by making them unclean by his approach. Rahn was accordingly reck oned among the planets which, on account of their wanderings, are regarded as of evil omen. In modern India he is the godling of two low caste tribes, the Dusadhs and Dhangars, in the eastern districts of the Northwest Provinces, where he is propitiated by the rite of passing through a fire kindled in his honor. Rahn is a post-Vedic demon, his Vedic predecessor as the fiend who eclipses the sun being Svarbanu. In Hindu astronomy Rahu is the moon's ascending, and Ketu is its descending node.