Surya- Hindu GodDeity"The Sun God"

The Chariot

Seven horses pull Surya's chariot across the sky. His charioteer is Aruna, son of Kashyapa and Vinata, brother of Garuda. Aruna sits facing backward, his body shielding the world from the full force of the sun's radiance. The Rigveda's Surya Sukta describes the daily journey: east to west across the heavens, then through the cosmic ocean beneath the world, rising again at dawn. Ushas, the goddess of dawn, rides ahead each morning to open the gates of heaven so the chariot may pass.

The Rigveda calls Surya the eye of Mitra and Varuna. No deed escapes his gaze. He crosses the sky watching everything, and what he sees cannot be unseen.

Sanjna's Flight

Surya's wife Sanjna, daughter of the divine architect Vishvakarma, could not bear his radiance. She endured it as long as she could, then created Chhaya, a shadow of herself, to take her place in the marriage bed. She fled to the forest in the form of a mare.

Surya did not notice the substitution. He fathered children with both wives. With the real Sanjna he had already had Yama, who became lord of the dead, and Yama's twin Yami, who became the river Yamuna. He had also fathered Manu Vaivasvata, ancestor of the human race. With Chhaya he fathered Shani, who governs karma, and the river Tapati.

When Surya discovered the deception, he found Sanjna still in the form of a mare. He took the form of a horse and approached her. From that union came the Ashvini Kumaras, the divine twin physicians of the gods.

The Lathe

To make Surya bearable to his wife, Vishvakarma clamped the sun onto his celestial lathe and shaved away an eighth of his radiance. The shavings fell as divine material. From them the gods forged Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra and Shiva's trident. The instruments that maintain cosmic order are made of condensed sunlight.

Karna

Kunti, still an unmarried girl, received a boon from the sage Durvasa: the power to invoke any god and receive a son. She tested it by calling Surya. He appeared in his full radiance and gave her a child. The boy was born wearing golden armor fused to his skin and earrings that could not be removed. Kunti, terrified of the scandal, placed him in a basket and set it on the river.

Adhiratha, a charioteer, found the basket and raised the boy as his own. Karna grew into a warrior who could match any fighter alive, but he fought for the Kauravas out of loyalty to Duryodhana, who had honored him when every other court turned him away.

Before the final war, Indra came to Karna disguised as a brahmin and asked for his armor and earrings as a gift. Surya appeared in Karna's dreams to warn him: the brahmin was Indra, and the armor was the only thing keeping his son alive. Karna gave it anyway. He would not refuse a supplicant. He cut the golden armor from his own flesh and handed it over.

Before the Battle

In the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana, Rama stood exhausted on the battlefield, facing Ravana for the final time. The sage Agastya appeared and taught him the Aditya Hridayam, a hymn to Surya that invokes the sun through all his names and aspects. Rama recited it three times, looked up, and felt his strength return. Then he killed Ravana.

The hymn survived the battle. It is still recited for protection and strength, addressed to the same sun that Agastya pointed Rama toward on that field.