Surya

Surya married Sanjna, daughter of Vishvakarma, who could not bear his heat. She made a double of herself from her own shadow - Chhaya - left her in her place, and went away, taking the form of a mare in the forest. Surya, finding out, sought her, and her father Vishvakarma ground down a portion of his brilliance on a lathe to make him bearable, and from the filings the weapons of the gods were made - Vishnu's discus, Shiva's trident, Kartikeya's spear. Sanjna returned. The children of the two wives are consequential: Yama and Yamuna from Sanjna, Shani and the Tapti from Chhaya, and the Ashvins. Surya's charioteer is Aruna, the dawn, who is legless - born prematurely - and the chariot has seven horses for the seven colours or the seven metres of Vedic prosody.

The Vedic Surya, Savitr, Mitra and Vivasvat are related but not identical figures, and their merging is a long process. The Saura sect, which held Surya as the supreme deity, was one of the major Hindu denominations and has effectively vanished, leaving the Konark and Modhera temples as its monuments - the disappearance of a whole sect is one of the more striking facts in Indian religious history. The Iranian and Central Asian influence on Surya's iconography, particularly the boots he wears in north Indian images, is well attested and unusual. The Karna material in the Mahabharata makes him a father in a way the puranic Surya rarely is. Chhath's origins are variously given as Vedic, as connected to Karna, and as connected to Draupadi.

Standing frontally in a chariot drawn by seven horses, driven by the legless Aruna, holding two lotuses at shoulder height - that lotus pair is his identifying attribute. In north Indian images he wears boots and a belted tunic, which is a genuine Iranian influence and distinguishes Surya images from every other Hindu deity's, none of whom wear footwear. A halo behind the head. The great architectural expressions are Konark, where the entire temple is a chariot with carved stone wheels, and Modhera, where the tank and the hall are aligned to the equinox sun. In household practice he is worshipped as the visible sun rather than through an image at all, which makes him unusual.

Konark Sun Temple — Puri, Odisha. The thirteenth-century temple built as Surya's chariot, with twenty-four carved stone wheels and seven horses. A UNESCO World Heritage Site. No longer a functioning temple - the sanctum is gone - but the most important Surya monument in India. Magha Saptami; the Konark festival. Konark, Puri district. Delivery cities: Puri, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack.

Modhera Sun Temple — Mehsana, Gujarat. Eleventh-century Chaulukya temple with the great stepped tank, aligned so the equinox sun falls on the sanctum. Not a functioning temple. Uttarardh Mahotsav; equinoxes. Modhera, Mehsana district. Delivery cities: Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Patan.

Dakshinaarka and the Chhath ghats of Bihar — Gaya, Patna and across the region, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand. Chhath is performed at riverbanks and ponds rather than temples. The Ganga ghats at Patna hold enormous numbers over the festival's four days. Chhath, Kartik Shukla Shashthi, Oct-Nov; Chaiti Chhath in Chaitra. Across Bihar and eastern UP. Delivery cities: Patna, Gaya, Varanasi, Ranchi.

Suryanar Kovil — Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The Surya temple of the Tamil Navagraha circuit, near Kumbakonam. Ratha Saptami; Sundays. Suryanar Kovil, Thanjavur district.

Solar devotion takes different forms in different settings. This page does not establish one required daily practice, fasting rule or observance for all households. Where a prayer is quoted, identify the text and the deity named in it; Rigveda 3.62.10 names Savitr.

स्रोत: Rigveda 3.62, including the verse to Savitr at 3.62.10

• Chhath Puja — Kartik Shukla Shashthi, Oct-Nov — Four days, a fast of about thirty-six hours without water, and arghya to the setting and rising sun standing in water. Chaiti Chhath is the spring counterpart.
• Makar Sankranti — 14-15 January — Surya's entry into Capricorn; kept across India under many names - Pongal, Lohri, Magh Bihu, Uttarayan.
• Ratha Saptami — Magha Shukla Saptami, Jan-Feb — Surya's birth and the turning of his chariot.
• Sundays — weekly — His day.

Gold is his metal without question - the sun's colour, and copper his secondary one, with the copper vessel for the arghya being the standard object in a great many Indian homes. That copper lota used at sunrise is one of the most functionally used religious metal objects in the country. Ruby is his stone. Sunday and Ratha Saptami are the giving occasions, and gold given on Makar Sankranti is a widespread practice. A gold Surya or a sun motif carries an unusually direct meaning here, since the deity is the visible thing and the metal is its colour.

The presence of Surya in a temple image, a household observance or a regional festival raises different historical questions. A claim that an entire religious community has disappeared requires evidence beyond a brief overview. This edition does not make that claim.

• The names Surya and Savitr should not be silently interchanged when identifying the deity invoked in a particular Vedic verse.
• A commercial depiction does not establish a universal instruction about worship, fasting or the purchase of a metal object.

• Sanjna and Chhaya - his two wives, one of whom is the other's shadow.
• Shani and Yama - his sons, by Chhaya and Sanjna respectively.
• Yamuna - his daughter; the river.
• Aruna - his legless charioteer, the dawn.
• Randal Maa - Sanjna as worshipped in Gujarat through the household lota rite.

Surya and Savitr occur in solar religious contexts, but the invoked name matters when discussing a text. Rigveda 3.62.10 names Savitr. Quote and translate a specific verse with its reference rather than collapse several names into one unexplained label.

स्रोत: Rigveda 3.62, including the verse to Savitr at 3.62.10

• Rigveda - the Surya and Savitr hymns, including the Gayatri, and the Surya Sukta.
• Aditya Hridayam, from the Ramayana's Yuddha Kanda, recited for strength.
• Saura Purana and the Samba Purana - the Saura sect's texts.
• Bhavishya Purana - the account of the Maga Brahmins brought to serve at Surya temples, which records the Iranian connection.