THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN AMONG THE ARYAN PEOPLES OF ANTIQUITY

THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN AMONG THE ARYAN PEOPLES OF ANTIQUITY
(Chapter XII of The Worship of Nature)
by Sir James G. Frazer
1925

2. The Worship of the Sun among the Vedic Indians

Among peoples of the Aryan stock solar worship has not been unknown, but the Sun has never occupied the leading place in their pantheon. The Indians of the Vedic age personified and to some extent worshipped the sun under various names, of which the chief were Surya and Savitri or Savitar. It is under these two different appellations that the sun is chiefly celebrated in the Rig-veda, though it is sometimes difficult to perceive why in any particular case the one name should be employed rather than the other. Yet different sets of hymns are devoted to the worship of the deity under each of these names, and the epithets applied to him in each of these characters are for the most part distinct. In a few passages both these names, and occasionally certain others, appear to be applied to the solar divinity indiscriminately; but in most cases the distinction between them is at least nominally preserved.
Of the two solar deities, Surya and Savitri or Savitar, the former is the more concrete; he remains closer to the physical object which he personifies; his connexion with the great luminary is never lost sight of. His name indeed of Surya designates the solar orb; hence in many passages it is impossible to say whether the word denotes the physical sun simply or the personification of it as a god. The difficulty of discriminating the physical from the divine aspect of Surya is all the greater, because in his case the personification is never carried far; mythical fancy has hardly played about him; indeed, the only myth of which he is the subject relates how the great god Indra vanquished him and carried off one of the wheels of his chariot. The allusion may be to the obscuration of the sun by a thunder-cloud or to a solar eclipse. However, Surya is so far personified that, like other sun-gods, he is described as driving across the sky in a car drawn either by one or several or seven fleet and ruddy horses or mares. He is said to be the son of the great sky-god Dyaus. The Dawn (Ushas) is spoken of as his wife in one passage, while in another she is said to have brought him forth. Thus in the fancy of the Vedic poet the two great natural phenomena, the Sun and the Dawn, were not yet crystallized into sharply defined figures, but floated vaguely in a golden or rosy haze. The eye of Surya is mentioned several times in the hymns, but he is himself equally often called the eye of Mitra and Varuna or of Agni (the Fire-god). In the Atharva-veda he is called the Lord of Eyes, and is said to be the one eye of created beings, and to see beyond the sky, the earth, and the waters. He is described as far-seeing, all-seeing, the spy of the whole world, he who beholds all beings and the good and bad deeds of mortals. He is the preserver and soul of all things, both stationary and moving, the vivifier of men and common to them all. Enlivened by him men pursue their ends and perform their work. He shines for all the world, for men and gods. He dispels the darkness with his light. He rolls up the darkness as a skin. His beams throw off the darkness as a skin into the waters. He triumphs over beings of darkness and witches. It is said that "truth is the base that bears the earth; by Surya are the heavens sustained."
Yet elsewhere Surya is occasionally spoken of as an inanimate object, as a gem of the sky, a variegated stone placed in the midst of heaven, a brilliant weapon which Mitra and Varuna conceal with cloud and rain. Hence he is said to have been produced, or caused to shine or to rise, or to have his path prepared by various gods. Thus we are told that Indra generated him, caused him to shine, or raised him to heaven; that Indra-Soma brought him up with light; that Soma placed light in the Sun, caused him to shine, or raised him in heaven; that Agni (the Fire-god) established the brightness of the sun on high, and made him ascend to heaven; that Dhatri, the creator, fashioned the sun as well as the moon. In these and other passages relating to the creation of the sun the notion of the simple luminary doubtless predominates. The ancient hymns, composed perhaps before the descent of the Aryans into the sweltering plains of northern India, contain only two or three allusions to the sun's burning heat; in the Rig-veda the luminary is not a maleficent power; for that aspect of his nature we must turn to the later Atharva-veda and the literature of the Brahmanas.
Ten entire hymns of the Rig-veda may be said to be devoted to the celebration of the Sun under the name of Surya. The following may serve as a specimen:

His heralds bear him up aloft, the god who knoweth all
that lives, Surya, that all may look on him,
The constellations pass away, like thieves, together with
their beams, Before the all-beholding Sun.
His herald rays are seen afar refulgent o'er the world of
men, Like flames of fire that burn and blaze.
Swift and all beautiful art thou, O Surya, maker of the light,
Illuming all the radiant realm.
Thou goest to the host of gods, thou comest hither to
mankind, Hither all light to be beheld.
With that same eye wherewith thou look'st, O purifying
Varuna, Upon the busy race of men,
Traversing sky and wide mid-air, thou metest with thy
beams our days, Sun, seeing all things that have birth.
Seven bay steeds harnessed to thy car bear thee, O thou
far-seeing one, God, Surya, with the radiant hair...
Looking upon the loftier light above the darkness we
have come To Surya, god among the gods, the light
that is most excellent.
Rising this day, O rich in friends, ascending to the
loftier heaven,
Surya, remove my heart's disease, take from me this
my yellow hue.
To parrots and to starlings let us give away my yellowness,
Or this my yellowness let us transfer to Haritala trees.

In these last lines the poet prays the Sun to remove his jaundice on the principle of homeopathic magic, in accordance with which the yellowness of the disease can be transferred to yellow objects, such as the sun and yellow parrots. Similar cures for jaundice were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans and are not unknown in modern Europe. That this was indeed the notion which prompted the old Vedic prayer to the Sun is certain; for the same cure is recorded in unambiguous terms as a simple charm in the Atharva-veda. The charm is as follows:

Up to the sun shall go thy heart-ache and thy jaundice:
in the colour of the red bull do we envelop thee!
We envelop thee in red tints, unto long life. May this
person go unscathed, and be free of yellow colour!
The cows whose divinity is Rohini, they who, moreover,
are themselves red (rohinih)--in their every form and
every strength we do envelop thee.
Into the parrots, into the thrush do we put thy jaundice,
and, furthermore, into the yellow wagtail (haridravas)
do we put thy jaundice.

In this charm the word (haridrava) translated "yellow wagtail" occurs in the hymn of the Rig-veda quoted above, where it is translated "Haritala trees." The translator (Mr. R. T. H. Griffith) in a note says that the word "haridrava" is understood by the commentator Sayana to mean a haritala tree, but that there seems to be no tree of that name. He further remarks that "haritala" usually signifies yellow orpiment, which is a yellow crystalline metal, and that "haridrava" generally means a yellow vegetable powder; and he adds that "the word 'haridrava' is explained in the Petersburg Lexicon as a certain yellow bird." In any case the essential point is that the objects to which the jaundice is to be transferred must be either yellow or red; for on the principles of homeopathic magic or medicine yellow objects naturally absorb the yellow disease, while red objects are similarly calculated to infuse into the sallow patient the rosy hue of health. To this day the Mehtars of the Central Provinces of India hang the flesh of a yellow snake or of a fish with yellowish scales about the neck of a child who is suffering from jaundice; or they catch a small frog alive, tie it up in a yellow cloth, and hang it by a blue thread till it dies on the neck of the little sufferer. Of course the yellow snake, the yellow fish, and the yellow cloth all possess the valuable property of absorbing the jaundice and thereby relieving the patient. On similar grounds anybody can see for himself that the Sun is a natural recipient of the jaundice.
A higher note is struck by another Vedic poet in a hymn addressed to Surya the sun:

Do homage unto Varuna's and Mitra's eye: offer this
solemn worship to the mighty god,
Who seeth far away, the ensign, born of gods. Sing
praises unto Surya, to the son of Dyaus.
May this my truthful speech guard me on every side,
wherever heaven and earth and days are spread abroad.
All else that is in motion finds a place of rest: the waters
ever flow and ever mounts the sun...
O Surya, with the light whereby thou scatterest gloom,
and with thy ray impellest every moving thing,
Keep far from us all feeble, worthless sacrifice, and drive
away disease and every evil dream.
Sent forth thou guardest well the path of every man,
and in thy wonted way arisest free from wrath.
When, Surya, we address our prayers to thee to-day,
may the gods favour this our purpose and desire.
This invocation, these our words may Heaven and Earth,
and Indra and the Waters and the Maruts hear.
Ne'er may we suffer want in presence of the Sun, and,
living happy lives, may we attain old age.
Cheerful in spirit, evermore, and keen of sight, with store
of children, free from sickness and from sin,
Long-living, may we look, O Surya, upon thee uprising
day by day, thou who art rich in friends!
Surya, may we live long and look upon thee still, thee,
O far-seeing one, bringing the glorious light,
The radiant god, the spring of joy to every eye, as thou
art mounting up o'er the high shining flood.
Thou by whose lustre all the world comes forth, and by
thy beams again returns unto its rest,
O Surya with the golden hair, ascend for us day after day,
still bringing purer innocence.
Bless us with shine, bless us with perfect daylight, bless us
with cold, with fervent heat and lustre.
Bestow on us, O Surya, varied riches, to bless us in our
home, and when we travel.

The other Vedic personification of the sun is Savitri or Savitar, who, as we have seen, is sometimes distinguished from and sometimes identified with Surya. In him the personal element is more prominent and the physical element less conspicuous than in his divine colleague or double. The name appears to be derived from a root meaning to stimulate, arouse, vivify, and in nearly half its occurrences it is accompanied by the noun "deva" -- god -- so that it would seem not to have lost its adjectival force. Hence we may conclude that Savitri or Savitar was originally an epithet applied to the sun as the greatest stimulator of life and motion in the world. He is celebrated in eleven whole hymns of the Rig-veda as well as in parts of others. Above all other deities, he is the golden god: the poets describe him as golden-eyed, golden-handed, and golden-tongued: he puts on golden or tawny mail: he mounts a golden car with a golden pole drawn by two radiant steeds, or by two or more brown, white-footed horses. Mighty golden splendour is his and his alone. He illumines the air, the earth, the world, and the vault of heaven. He lfts up his strong golden arms, wherewith he blesses and arouses all beings: his arms extend even to the ends of the earth. He rides in his golden car, beholding all creatures both on an upward and on a downward path. He shines after the path of the dawn. He has measured out the earthly spaces: he goes to three bright realms of heaven and is united with the rays of the sun. His ancient paths in the sky are dustless and easy to traverse. He supports the whole world. He fixed the earth with bonds and made firm the sky in the rafterless space of air. He bestows length of days on man and immortality on the gods. He drives away bad spirits and sorcerers; he is implored to deliver men from evil dreams and sin, and to waft the parting soul to the land where dwell the righteous who have gone before.
According to the commentator Sayana, the sun is called Savitri before his rising, but from his rising to his setting his name is Surya. Yet Savitri is sometimes spoken of as lulling to sleep; hence he would seem to be associated with the evening as well as with the morning. Indeed, in one hymn he is extolled as the setting sun, and there are indications that most of the hymns addressed to him are designed for either a morning or an evening sacrifice. He is said to lull to rest all two-footed and four-footed beings: he unyokes his steeds in the gloaming: he brings the wanderer to rest: at his command the night comes on: the weaver rolls up her web, and the man of skill lays down his work unfinished: then every bird seeks his nest and every beast his lodging.
Besides these two great personifications of the sun, mythologists sometimes distinguish three other solar deities in the Vedic pantheon, namely Mitra, Pushan, and Vishnu. Of all the solar divinities of the Rig-veda the oldest perhaps is Mitra, the "Friend," the personification of the sun's beneficent agency. Surviving from an earlier period, his individuality is almost merged in that of the great god Varuna, with whom he is nearly always invoked. Indeed, only a single hymn of the Rig-veda is addressed to him alone. The great antiquity of Mitra is vouched for by the occurrence of his name under the form Mithra in the old Persian pantheon, which seems to show that he dates from a period before the separation of the Indian and the Iranian peoples. However, it must be admitted that the solar character of Mitra is but dimly adumbrated in the Rig-veda; indeed, some high authorities believe that he, like his Iranian counterpart Mithra, was originally a personification of the celestial light rather than of the sun, though in later times, like Mithra, he came to be identified with the great luminary. Others think that the primary character of Mithra was moral rather than physical; according to them, he personified the virtue of good faith and strict regard for the sanctity of compacts.
Another Vedic deity in whom mythologists detect a personification of the solar orb is Pushan, the "Prosperer." He is said to exhibit the genial aspect of the sun, manifested chiefly as a pastoral deity, the protector and multiplier of cattle. In this respect he reminds us of the Greek Sun-god Helios, who kept herds of kine, as Ulysses and his companions learned to their cost. But the individuality of Pushan is vague and his human traits are scanty. He is called the best charioteer: his car is drawn by goats instead of horses; and he subsists on a low diet of gruel. As a cowherd he carries an ox-goad: he follows and protects the cattle: he preserves them from falling into a pit, brings them home unhurt, seeks and drives back the lost. He beholds all creatures clearly, and he is the lord of all things, both moving and stationary. He is said to have been the wooer of his mother or the lover of his sister: the gods gave him in marriage to the sun-maiden Surya. The epithet "glowing" is often applied to him. Born on the far path of heaven and the far path of earth, he goes to and returns from both the beloved abodes, which he well knows. Hence he conducts the dead on the path to the fathers who have gone before; and, knowing the paths, he is a guardian of roads, and is besought to protect the wayfarer from the perils of wolves and robbers.
In all this there is not much to show that Pushan personifies any natural phenomenon. However, we are told that a large number of passages point to a connexion between him and the sun. One Indian commentator, Yaska, explains Pushan to be "the sun, the preserver of all beings," and in post-Vedic literature Pushan occasionally occurs as a name of the sun.
The last of the solar deities in Vedic literature is Vishnu. Though less often invoked than the others, he is historically by far the most important, since he developed into one of the three persons of the Hindoo trinity. In the Rig-veda his most characteristic trait is that he takes three strides, which are often referred to in the hymns. Scholars are almost unanimous in interpreting the three strides with reference to the course of the sun, but they differ as to the application of the myth, some understanding the three steps to mean the rising, culminating, and setting of the sun, while others regard them as descriptive of the sun's passage through the three realms of the universe. The former view is favoured by most European scholars; the latter is supported by a practically unbroken tradition in India from the later Vedic period onward. Whichever interpretation be adopted, the highest step of Vishnu is heaven, where the gods and the fathers dwell. In several passages he is said to have taken his three steps for the benefit of mankind. According to a myth of the Brahmanas, Vishnu rescued the earth for man from the demons by taking his three strides; after that he had assumed the form of a dwarf. In this we have a transition to the later mythology, in which Vishnu's benevolent character is further developed in the doctrine of Avatars or incarnations for the good of humanity.
Closely connected with the solar gods is Ushas, the Dawn. Her name, derived from the root "vas" -- to shine -- means the dawn, and is etymologically identical with the Latin "aurora" and the Greek "eos," both signifying dawn. Hence, conceived as a goddess, she always betrays her physical basis through a transparent veil of mythical fancy. In her graceful figure the personification is but slight: in addressing her the poet never forgets the radiant glory and the gorgeous hues of the sky at the break of day. She is said to have been born in the sky, and is constantly called the daughter of heaven. She is the sister, or the elder sister, of Night, and the names of Dawn and Night are often conjoined as a dual compound. She is said to have opened the paths for Surya, the Sun-god, to travel in: she shines with the light of the sun. In one passage the Sun-god Surya is spoken of as following her as a young man follows a maiden, but in another she is described as the wife of Surya, and elsewhere the Dawns are called the wives of the Sun; for recollecting the multitude of dawns that have succeeded each other, the poet often speaks of Dawn in the plural. Thus, as followed in space by the sun, the Dawn is conceived of as his spouse or mistress; but as preceding the sun in time she is occasionally thought of as his mother. Born anew every morning, she is always young; yet at the same time she is old, nay immortal; she wears out the lives of the generations of men, which vanish away one after another, while she continues undecaying. As she shone in former days, so she shines now and will shine in days to come, never ageing, immortal. Arraying herself in gay attire, like a dancer, she displays her bosom: like a maiden decked by her mother, she shows her form. Effulgent in peerless beauty, she withholds her radiance from neither small nor great: rising resplendent as from a bath, revealing her charms, she comes with light, driving the shadows away. She dispels the darkness: she removes the black robe of night: she wards off evil spirits and evil dreams. She discloses the treasures which the shadows of night had concealed: she distributes them bountifully. When she awakens, she illumines the utmost borders of the sky: she opens the gates of heaven: she unbars the doors of darkness as the cows throw open their stall: her radiant beams appear like herds of cattle. The ruddy beams fly up: the ruddy cows yoke themselves: the ruddy Dawns weave their web of light as of old. Thus Dawn comes to be called Mother of Kine. She is borne on a shining chariot: she is said to arrive on a hundred chariots. She is drawn by ruddy horses or by ruddy cows or bulls. Both the horses and the cows probably represent the red rays of morning, though the cows are often explained as the rosy clouds of daybreak. Among the many hymns specially dedicated to Ushas or the Dawn, it will suffice to quote one: its pensive beauty needs no words to commend it to the attention of the reader:

This light is come, amid all lights the fairest; born is the
brilliant, far-extending brightness.
Night, sent away for Savitar's uprising, hath yielded up
a birth-place for the morning.
The fair, the bright is come with her white offspring; to
her the dark one hath resigned her dwelling.
Akin, immortal, following each other, changing their colours
both the heavens move onward.
Common, unending is the sisters' pathway; taught by
the gods, alternately they travel.
Fair-formed, of different hues and yet one-minded,
Night and Dawn clash not, neither do they tarry.
Bright leader of glad sounds, our eyes behold her,
splendid in hue she hath unclosed the portals.
She, stirring up the world, hath shown us riches; Dawn
hath awakened every living creature.
Rich Dawn, she sets afoot the coiled-up sleeper, one
for enjoyment, one for wealth or worship.
Those who saw little for extended vision; all living
creatures hath the Dawn awakened.
One to high sway, one to exalted glory, one to pursue
his gain, and one his labour;
All to regard their different vocations, all moving creatures
hath the Dawn awakened.
We see her there, the child of Heaven, apparent, the
young maid flushing in her shining raiment.
Thou sovran lady of all earthly treasure, flush on us here,
auspicious Dawn, this morning.
She, first of endless morns to come hereafter, follows
the path of morns that have departed.
Dawn, at her rising, urges forth the living: him who is
dead she wakes not from his slumber...
How long a time, and they shall be together,--dawns
that have shone and dawns to shine hereafter?
She yearns for former dawns with eager longing, and
goes forth gladly shining with the others.
Gone are the men who in the days before us looked
on the rising of the earlier morning.
We, we the living, now behold her brightness, and thy
come nigh who shall hereafter see her.
Foe-chaser, born of Law, and Law's protector,
joy-giver, maker of all pleasant voices,
Auspicious, bringing food for gods' enjoyment, shine
on us here, as best, O Dawn, this morning.
From days eternal hath Dawn shone, the goddess,
and shows this light to-day, endowed with riches.
So will she shine on days to come; immortal she moves
on in her own strength, undecaying.
In the sky's borders hath she shone in splendour:
the goddess hath thrown off the veil of darkness.
Awakening the world with purple horses, on her
well-harnessed chariot Dawn approaches.
Bringing all life-sustaining blessings with her, showing
herself she sends forth brilliant lustre.
Last of the countless mornings that have vanished,
first of bright morns to come hath Dawn arisen.
Arise! the breath, the life, again hath reached us:
darkness hath passed away, and light approacheth.
She for the Sun hath left a path to travel: we have
arrived where men prolong existence.
Singing the praises of refulgent mornings with his hymn's
web, the priest, the poet rises.
Shine then to-day, rich maid, on him who lands thee,
shine down on us the gift of life and offspring...
Mother of gods, Aditi's form of glory, ensign of sacrifice,
shine forth exalted.
Rise up, bestowing praise on our devotion: all-bounteous,
make us chief among the people.
Whatever splendid wealth the Dawns bring with them
to bless the man who offers praise and worship,
Even that may Mitra, Varuna vouchsafe us, and
Aditi and Sindhu, Earth and Heaven.

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