Surya, the Sun God

Surya is the Sun as a living deity. Because he is seen by all, he is called the 'pratyaksha devata', the visible god, and for many Hindus the day begins by offering him water at sunrise. Surya first appears in the Rigveda, where hymns praise him as the eye of Mitra and Varuna, the one who sees all, drives away darkness and disease, and is 'the self of all that moves and all that stands'.

Several Vedic deities are associated with the Sun. Savitr is the impeller and enlivener invoked in the Gayatri mantra; Pushan is the guardian of roads and herds; Mitra and Vivasvan are other solar names. Surya is counted among the Adityas, the sons of Aditi and the sage Kashyapa; later texts list twelve, one for each month. The twelve names chanted in Surya Namaskar (Mitra, Ravi, Surya, Bhanu, Khaga, Pushan, Hiranyagarbha, Marichi, Aditya, Savitr, Arka and Bhaskara) reflect this many-sided worship.

In astrology Surya is the king of the Navagraha, the nine planetary deities, and is linked with the soul, authority, vitality and the father. Devotees understand him as a giver of health, energy and clarity. Historians note that sun worship was especially strong in early medieval India, when great sun temples such as Konark and Modhera were built.

Surya is usually shown standing or riding in his chariot, radiant, with a lotus in each hand. His images contain much astronomical symbolism.

Sanjna and Chhaya. The Markandeya Purana tells how Surya's wife Sanjna (Saranyu), daughter of the divine architect Vishvakarma, could not bear his brilliance. She created a shadow-double, Chhaya, to take her place and went away to do tapas. With Sanjna, Surya had Vaivasvata Manu, the twins Yama and Yami (who became the river Yamuna), and, in her horse form, the twin Ashvins. With Chhaya he had Shani, Tapati and Savarni Manu. When the truth came out, Vishvakarma trimmed some of Surya's blazing light so that Sanjna could return. Puranas differ in the details and number of children.

The Aditya Hridayam. In the Yuddha Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, as Rama stood weary before his final battle with Ravana, the sage Agastya came to him and taught him the Aditya Hridayam, a hymn to the Sun. Rama recited it and went on to victory. It is still chanted for strength, health and success.

Karna and Sugriva. In the Mahabharata, Kunti invoked Surya with a mantra given by the sage Durvasa and bore Karna, born with divine armour and earrings. In the Ramayana, the vanara king Sugriva is also the Sun's son.

The Sun as teacher. Popular tradition holds that Hanuman studied under Surya, keeping pace with his chariot across the sky, and the Mahabharata tells how Surya gave Yudhishthira the akshaya patra, a vessel that never ran out of food, during the Pandavas' forest exile.

Surya is the son of Aditi and Kashyapa. His consorts are Sanjna and Chhaya, and some traditions name others. His children include Yama, lord of death and dharma; Yamuna, the sacred river; Shani (Saturn), lord of karma and discipline; Vaivasvata Manu, ancestor of humanity in the present age; the Ashvins, divine physicians; and Tapati, the river goddess. Karna and Sugriva are also his sons. Surya has no animal vahana; his seven-horsed chariot, driven by Aruna, is his vehicle.

The most common act of sun worship is surya arghya: at sunrise, standing facing east, devotees pour water from a copper vessel, often with red flowers, kumkum, rice grains and jaggery, while chanting a mantra and looking at the Sun through the falling stream. Traditional sandhyavandana includes offering arghya to the Sun at dawn, noon and dusk with the Gayatri mantra.

Sunday (Ravivar) is Surya's day. Many devotees fast or take only one meal, and some avoid salt on Sundays by custom. Red flowers, red sandal paste, wheat and jaggery are favoured offerings, and red is his colour. Surya Namaskar, the sequence of twelve postures with twelve names, is both a physical practice and a prayer. Popular mantras include 'Om Suryaya Namah' and 'Om Ghrinih Suryaya Namah', and the Aditya Hridayam is recited for strength and health.

Makar Sankranti, around 14 or 15 January, marks the Sun's entry into Makara (Capricorn) and the beginning of its northward journey (Uttarayana). It is one of the few Hindu festivals fixed by the solar calendar, and it is celebrated as Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Uttarayan with kite-flying in Gujarat, Magh Bihu in Assam and Khichdi in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with holy dips, til-gud sweets and charity.

Chhath Puja, on Kartika Shukla Shashthi (six days after Diwali), is the great sun festival of Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh, now celebrated wherever their people live. Over four days devotees fast strictly, including from water, and stand in rivers and ponds to offer arghya to the setting and then the rising Sun, together with Chhathi Maiya. Ratha Saptami (Magha Shukla Saptami) is celebrated as Surya's birthday, especially in South and West India, and Samba Dashami is observed in Odisha.

The Sun Temple at Konark in Odisha, built in the 13th century, is designed as Surya's colossal chariot with twelve pairs of carved stone wheels and a team of horses; UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site. The 11th-century Sun Temple at Modhera in Gujarat, with its great stepped tank, is on UNESCO's tentative list. Other famous shrines include the Suryanarayana Swamy temple at Arasavalli in Andhra Pradesh, Suryanar Kovil near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu (one of the Navagraha temples), the Deo Sun Temple in Bihar, which is crowded at Chhath, the Katarmal Sun Temple in Uttarakhand, and the ruins of the Martand Sun Temple in Kashmir.

The Saura tradition worships Surya as the Supreme Being, and Surya is one of the five deities of the Smarta panchayatana puja established, according to tradition, by Adi Shankaracharya. The Samba and Bhavishya Puranas contain much of the Saura lore, including the story of Krishna's son Samba, who was cured of a skin disease by worshipping the Sun and built a temple in his honour.

In the Upanishads, the Sun is a symbol of Brahman: the Isha Upanishad prays to Pushan to remove the golden lid that hides the face of truth. The Gayatri mantra, addressed to Savitr, is the heart of daily Vedic prayer for all traditions. Vaishnavas worship him as Suryanarayana, the Sun as Narayana, and yogis honour him through Surya Namaskar. Whatever one's sampradaya, the Sun is a daily reminder of the light that makes life and understanding possible.