Surya
Surya is the Hindu sun god, worshipped since the Vedas. He holds a lotus in each hand and rides a one-wheeled chariot drawn by seven horses, and Hindus honour him at dawn and at the harvest festivals of Pongal and Makar Sankranti.
Meaning
The Himalayan Academy calls Surya, “Sun”, one of the principal divinities of the Vedas, also prominent in the epics and Puranas: Saivites revere him each morning as Shiva Surya, and Smartas and Vaishnavas revere the golden orb as Surya Narayana. A Nepali forehead pendant in the Cleveland Museum of Art, made for a temple image, shows him in his chariot holding two lotuses, with the Dawn below him driving the chariot, here with five horses. T. A. Gopinatha Rao quotes the Visvakarma-silpa: his great chariot has one wheel and is drawn by seven horses, and he has a lotus in each hand. A hymn to him, the Aditya Hridayam, in the Hindu American Foundation’s version, praises him as the one whose appearance makes the lotus blossom.
Origin and history
Surya’s early images show where some of his worshippers came from. A sculpture of the early 700s in Cleveland gives him a long tunic and riding boots, the dress of the steppes of Central Asia: the museum explains that the sun god was of paramount power among peoples of Central and Western Asia, and that when images of him began to be made in India, from the 100s BCE, he was dressed like them. He is worshipped throughout the subcontinent and in Kashmir and Nepal, beside both Hindu and Buddhist deities.
In the Ramayana, the Hindu American Foundation tells, the sage Agastya taught Rama the Aditya Hridayam during his battle with Ravana; Rama, who is said to descend from Surya’s line of kings, recited it and went on to win. The hymn describes the god with seven horses yoked to his chariot.
The chariot and the seven horses
Rao collects the rules for his image. Surya may stand on a lotus pedestal, or ride a hexagonal chariot with a single wheel drawn by seven horses fully caparisoned and driven by the lame Aruna. In the Cleveland pendant from Nepal, the figure below him is the Dawn, driving his chariot across the sky.
Morning water and the sun salutation
Surya is worshipped at dawn. The Hindu American Foundation describes Surya Narayana Puja, performed facing the sun at dawn and offering water in his honour, and traces Surya Namaskar, the “sun salutation” of yoga, to yogis who experimented with the core ideas of that puja.
Pongal and Makar Sankranti
As the giver of life, the Himalayan Academy says, Surya is worshipped at harvest festivals everywhere. Makar Sankranti, the northward move of the sun into Capricorn, is celebrated in honour of Surya and Saraswati and marks the new year for many Hindus. The second day of the harvest festival of Pongal, Surya Pongal, is his: rice and milk are boiled together in a clay pot, tied to a turmeric plant and set outside as an offering to him.
Read next
- Next in Hindu deities and their symbolsGangaGanga is the river Ganges worshipped as a goddess. She stands on the makara, a crocodile-like river creature, and flows from Shiva’s hair, and Hindus bathe in her waters, keep them at home and give them to the dying.
- The same shape in Adinkra symbolsBese SakaBese Saka, a bunch of kola nuts, is the adinkra symbol of affluence, abundance and unity.
See also
Rama, Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, Murugan, Vishnu.
Sources
- Dancing with Śiva: glossary (Sūrya), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. Sūrya
- The Hindu roots of yoga: Surya Namaskar (Syama Allard, Hindu American Foundation), Syama Allard, “The Hindu roots of yoga: Surya Namaskar”, Hindu American Foundation, Hindu American Foundation, article text
- Lohri, Makar Sankranti, and Pongal: India’s winter harvest festivals (Hindu American Foundation), “Lohri, Makar Sankranti, and Pongal: India’s winter harvest festivals”, Hindu American Foundation, Hindu American Foundation, article text
- Surya, the Sun God (1965.557, Cleveland Museum of Art), Surya, the Sun God, early 700s, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1965.557, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
- Forehead Pendant with Sun God Surya in a Chariot with Attendants (1915.337, Cleveland Museum of Art), Forehead Pendant with Sun God Surya in a Chariot with Attendants, 1600s or 1700s, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1915.337, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
- Elements of Hindu Iconography, Vol. I, Part II, T. A. Gopinatha Rao, 1914, Law Printing House, Madras (Internet Archive, Wellcome Collection copy), Adityas and the Nava-grahas
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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