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Hinduism - Who Is Surya In The Hindu Pantheon?

 

 

 The sun, in both its physical and anthropomorphic forms as a celestial phenomena.

Since the Vedas, the oldest and most authoritative Hindu religious literature, the sun has been an important god and has maintained a position of considerable prominence.

The Gayatri Mantra, for example, is a holy mantra that is supposed to be sung every day by twice-born males, or men from the three "twice-born" groups—brahmin, kshatriya, and vaishya—who have completed the teenage religious initiation known as "second birth." Invoking the sun as the creator and nourisher of all things, the Gayatri Mantra asks him to awaken the brains of all who observe him.

Many Smarta brahmins continue to worship Surya as one of the "five-fold" (panchayatana) deities (the others being Shiva, Vishnu, the Goddess, and Ganesh), according to the Advaita philosopher Shankaracharya.

Surya was also the dominant god for various groups, notably in eastern India, for a period, but his devotion has since been substantially superseded.

The temple of the sun at Konarak (now damaged) is the most impressive example of pagan devotion, with its immense size and abundance of sensual sculptures on its external walls.

Religious Beliefs and Practices of North India During the Early Medieval Period, by Vibhuti Bhushan Mishra, 1973; and Sarat Chandra Mitra, The Cult of the Sun God in Medieval Eastern Bengal, 1986.


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