Surya

   Surya is the most common of the names for the Sun in the VEDAS, which all seem to refer to differ-ent aspects of this divine body. (SAVITRI is the next most frequent Vedic Sun name.) The Sun is seen as crossing the sky each day on a chariot pulled by horses. In the Vedas Surya is sometimes said to be the son of ADITI and sometimes that of Dyaus (the heavens). Sometimes he is said to be the son or the husband of USHAS, the dawn. In the era of the PURANAS, Surya is seen as the son of Aditi and the sage Kashyapa. The Sun (under the name Savitri) is the object of worship each morning by twice-born (confirmed), upper-caste Hindu males who chant the GAYATRI MANTRA.

   Further reading: Shakti M. Gupta, Surya, the Sun God (Bombay: Somaiya, 1977); Alfred Hillebrandt, Vedic Mythology (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990); P. Pan-dit, Aditi and Other Deities in the Veda (Pondicherry: Dipti, 1970); W. J. Wilkins, Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic (Calcutta: Rupa, 1973).