SURYA

in Hindu mythology and religion, the sun and the sun god. Although in the Vedic period several other deities also possessed solar characteristics, most of these were merged into a single god in later Hinduism. Surya once ranked together with Vishnu, Siva, Sakti, and Ganesa, and many temples dedicated to him are found throughout India. In modern Hinduism he is worshiped as the supreme deity by only a small following, the Saura sect, though he is invoked by all Hindus, and the Gayatri-mantra, uttered daily at dawn by orthodox Hindus, is addressed to the sun. Surya is the mythological father of many notable sons, including Manu (progenitor of the human race), Yama (lord of death), the Asvins (twin physicians to the gods), Karna (a great warrior of the Mahabharata), and Sugriva (king of monkeys). The Puranas record that the weapons of the gods were forged from pieces trimmed from Surya, whose full emanation was too bright to bear. His power was conceived of as dispelling darkness, curing disease, and heating and illuminating the world. His wife Usasin some accounts, his mother or mistressis the personification of dawn. Sculptures of Surya often show him in northern or Scythian dressclose-fitting coat and high bootssuggesting an influence from Iranian sun cults. He is commonly represented in a chariot drawn by seven horses, or by a single horse with seven heads, holding full-blown lotuses, his head surrounded by a nimbus or by rays. One of the most splendid temples dedicated to Surya is the 13th-century Surya Deula (Sun Temple), once called the Black Pagoda, at Konarak, in Orissa. There, the whole structure is conceived as a chariot on wheels in which the sun god rides across the heavens pulled by prancing horses.