Sun

Worship

By

Tamarapu Sampath Kumaran

About the Author:

Mr T Sampath Kumaran is a freelance writer. He regularly contributes

articles on Management, Business, Ancient Temples and Temple
Architecture, and different cultures of people, to many leading Dailies
and Magazines. His articles for the young is very popular in “The Young
World section” of THE HINDU. His books on Hindu Saints, and
Temples of Pilgrimage centers have been well received in the religious
circle.
He was associated in the production of two Documentary films on Nava
Tirupathi Temples, and Tirukkurungudi Temple in Tamilnadu.
Acknowledgement
Google for the pictures and several authors for the information

The sun was one of the oldest divine objects worshiped by man.
In fact, sun worship is considered to be one of the oldest
religions on earth - dating back as early as prehistoric times. The
top five countries that once worshiped the sun still has
monuments, ruins and cultural remnants that directly links to the
ancient religious practice.
Divinely revealed religions across the world point to a single
omnipotent deity. Even traditional faiths and mythology seem to
point to the worship of a single deity in their origins. However,
we can also observe polytheistic traditions that seem to have
evolved from an erosion of monotheism. Man’s nature still
yearned for the need for a powerful creator and found solace in
deities created in his own mind.
Although sun worship has been used frequently as a term for
“pagan” religion, it is, in fact, relatively rare. Though almost
every culture uses solar motifs, only a relatively few cultures
Egyptian, Indo-European, and Meso-America developed solar
religions. All of these groups had in common a well-developed
urban civilization with a strong ideology of sacred kingship. In
all of them the imagery of the sun as the ruler of both the upper
and the lower worlds that he majestically visits on his daily
round is prominent.
The sun is the bestower of light and life to the totality of the
cosmos; with his unblinking, all-seeing eye, he is the stern
guarantor of justice; with the almost universal connection of
light with enlightenment or illumination, the sun is the source of
wisdom.
These qualities—sovereignty, power of beneficence, justice, and
wisdom—are central to any elite religious group, and it is within
these contexts that a highly developed solar ideology is found.
Kings ruled by the power of the sun and claimed descent from
the sun. Solar deities, gods personifying the sun, are sovereign
and all-seeing. The sun is often a prime attribute of or is
identified with the Supreme Deity.

The Hindu solar deity Surya being driven across the sky in his
chariot, the Ādityas are one of the principal deities of the Vedic
classical Hinduism belonging to Solar class..
Hymn 7.99 of Rigveda, Indra-Vishnu produces the sun, his
discus is a vestige of his solar creation, equivalent to the sun, the
Vishnu purana identifies the Discus chakra with the following:
'thoughts, like the chakra, flow faster than even the mightiest
wind.'.
Even the Gayatri mantra, which is regarded as one of the most
sacred of the Vedic hymns is dedicated to Savitr, one of the
principal Ādityas. The Adityas are a group of solar deities, from
the Brahmana period numbering twelve. The ritual of Surya
Namaskaar, performed by Hindus, is an elaborate set of hand
gestures and body movements, designed to greet and revere the
Sun.
The sun god in Hinduism is an ancient and revered deity. In later
Hindu usage, all the Vedic Ādityas lost identity and
metamorphosed into one composite deity, Surya, the Sun.
The Ramayana has Rama as a direct descendant of the Surya,
thus belonging to the" Suryavamsha" or the clan of the Sun. The
Mahabharata describes one of its warrior heroes, Karna, as being
the son of the Pandava mother Kunti and Surya.
The charioteer of Surya is Aruna, who is also personified as the
redness that accompanies the sunlight in dawn and dusk. The
sun god is driven by a seven-horsed Chariot depicting the seven
days of the week and the seven colours of rainbow which are
seen due to the dispersion by Surya's rays.

In India, at Konark, in the state of Odisha, a temple is dedicated

to Surya. The Konark Sun Temple has been declared a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.There are further temples
dedicated to Surya, one in Arasavilli in Andhra Pradesh, one in
Gujarat at Modhera and another in Rajasthan. The temple at
Arasavilli was constructed in such a way that on the day of
Radhasaptami, the Sun's rays directly fall on the feet of the Sri
Suryanarayana Swami, the deity at the temple.
Surya is the most prominent of the navagrahas or nine celestial
objects of the Hindus. Navagrahas can be found in almost all
Hindu temples.
Chhath also called Dala Chhath, is an ancient Hindu festival
dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity, unique to Bihar,
Jharkhand and the Terai. This major festival is also celebrated in
the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
and parts of Chhattisgarh.
Hymns to the Sun can be found in the Vedas, the oldest sacred
texts of Hinduism. Practiced in different parts of India, the
worship of the Sun has been described in the Rigveda. There is
another festival called Sambha-Dasami, which is celebrated in
the state of Odisha for the surya.
The sun is prayed to by South Indians during the harvest festival.
In Tamil Nadu, the tamil people worship the sun god during the
Tamil month of Thai, after a year of crop farming. The month is
known as the harvesting month and people pay respects to the
sun on the first day of the Thai month known as Thai pongal, or
Pongal, which ia a four day celebration. It is one of the few
indigenous worship by the Tamil people irrespective of religion.
In other parts of India, the festival is celebrated as Makar
Sankranti and is mostly worshipped by the hindu diaspora of
India.

In ancient Egypt the sun god Re was the dominant figure among
the high gods and retained this position from early in that
civilization’s history. In the myth relating the voyage of the sun
god over the heavenly ocean, the sun sets out as the young god
Kheper; appears at noon in the zenith as the full-grown sun, Re;
and arrives in the evening at the western region in the shape of
the old sun god, Atum.
The Sun is sometimes referred to by its Latin name Sol or by its
Greek name Helios.
The Neolithic concept of a "solar barge" a mythological
representation of the Sun riding in a boat is found in the later
myths of ancient Egypt, with Ra and Horus. Predynasty
Egyptian beliefs attribute Atum as the sun-god and Horus as a
god of the sky and Sun. As the Old Kingdom theocracy gained
power, early beliefs were incorporated with the expanding
popularity of Ra and the Osiris-Horus mythology. Atum became
Ra-Atum, the rays of the setting Sun. Osiris became the divine
heir to Atum's power on Earth and passes his divine authority to
his son Horus. Early Egyptian myths imply the Sun is within the
lioness, Sekhmet, at night and is reflected in her eyes; or that it
is within the cow, Hathor, during the night, being reborn each
morning as her son bull.
Mesopotamian Shamash plays an important role during the
Bronze Age, and "my Sun" is eventually used as an address to
royalty. Similarly, South American cultures have a tradition of
Sun worship, as with the Incan Inti.

During the Roman Empire, a

festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun, or Dies Natalis
Solis Invicti, was celebrated on the winter solstice, the "rebirth"
of the Sun—which occurred on 25 December of the Julian
calendar. In late antiquity, the theological centrality of the Sun
in some Imperial religious systems suggest a form of a "solar
monotheism". The religious commemorations on 25 December
were replaced under Christian domination of the Empire with
the birthday of Christ.

In Africa the worship of Sun is referred to,

Isis, bearing her solar disk and horns nurses her infant, Horus.
The Tiv people consider the Sun to be the son of the supreme
being Awondo and the Moon Awondo's daughter. The Barotse
tribe believes that the Sun is inhabited by the sky god Nyambi
and the Moon is his wife. Some Sara people also worship the
Sun. Even where the sun god is equated with the supreme being,
in some African mythologies he or she does not have any special
functions or privileges as compared to other deities. The ancient
Egyptian god of creation, Amun is also believed to reside inside
the sun. So is the Akan creator deity, Nyame and the Dogon
deity of creation, Nommo. Also in Egypt, there was a religion
that worshipped the Sun directly, and was among the first
monotheistic religions: Atenism.
Sun worship was prevalent in ancient Egyptian religion. The
earliest deities associated with the Sun are all goddesses: Wadjet,
Sekhmet, Hathor, Nut, Bast, Bat, and Menhit. First Hathor, and
then Isis, give birth to and nurse Horus and Ra. Hathor the
horned-cow is one of the 12 daughters of Ra, gifted with joy and
is a wet-nurse to Horus.
From at least the 4th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, the Sun was
worshipped as the deity Re, pronounced probably as Riya,
meaning simply 'the sun', and portrayed as a falcon headed god
surmounted by the solar disk, and surrounded by a serpent. Re
supposedly gave warmth to the living body, symbolised as an
ankh: a "T" shaped amulet with a looped upper half. The ankh, it
was believed, was surrendered with death, but could be
preserved in the corpse with appropriate mummification and
funerary rites. The supremacy of Re in the Egyptian pantheon
was at its highest with the 5th Dynasty, when open air solar
temples became common. In the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Ra
lost some of his preeminence to Osiris, lord of the West, and
judge of the dead. In the New Empire period, the Sun became
identified with the dung beetle, whose spherical ball of dung
was identified with the Sun. In the form of the sun disc Aten, the
Sun had a brief resurgence during the Amarna Period when it
again became the preeminent, if not only, divinity for the
Pharaoh Akhenaton.
The Sun's movement across the sky represents a struggle
between the Pharaoh's soul and an avatar of Osiris. Ra travels
across the sky in his solar-boat; at dawn he drives away the
demon king Apep. The "solarisation" of several local gods
(Hnum-Re, Min-Re, Amon-Re) reaches its peak in the period of
the fifth dynasty.
Rituals to the god Amun who became identified with the sun
god Ra were often carried out on the top of temple pylons. A
Pylon mirrored the hieroglyph for 'horizon' or akhet, which was
a depiction of two hills "between which the sun rose and set",
associated with recreation and rebirth. On the first Pylon of the
temple of Isis at Philae, the pharaoh is shown slaying his
enemies in the presence of Isis, Horus and Hathor. In the
eighteenth dynasty, the earliest-known monotheistic head of
state, Akhenaten changed the polytheistic religion of Egypt to a
monotheistic one, Atenism of the solar-disk and is the first
recorded state monotheism. All other deities were replaced by
the Aten, including Amun-Ra, the reigning sun god of
Akhenaten's own region. Unlike other deities, the Aten did not
have multiple forms. His only image was a disk—a symbol of
the Sun.

In Armenian mythology and in

the vicinity of Carahunge, the ancient site of interest in the field
of archaeoastronomy, people worshiped a powerful deity or
intelligence called Ara,The ancient Armenians called themselves
"children of the sun" (Russian and Armenian
archaeoastronomers have suggested that at Carahunge seventeen
of the stones still standing were associated with observations of
sunrise or sunset at the solstices and equinoxes.
The concept of the sun in Pre-Islamic Arabia, was abolished
only under Muhammad. The Arabian solar deity appears to have
been a goddess, Shams/Shamsun, most likely related to the
Canaanite Shapash and broader middle-eastern Shamash. She
was the patron goddess of Himyar, and possibly exalted by the
Sabaeans and early Bedouin.

In Buddhist cosmology, the bodhisattva of the

Sun is known as Sūryaprabha ("having the light of the sun"); in
Chinese he is called Rigong Riguang Pusa (The Bright Solar
Bodhisattva of the Solar Palace), Rigong Riguang Tianzi (The
Bright Solar Prince of the Solar Palace), or Rigong Riguang
Zuntian Pusa (The Greatly Revered Bright Solar Prince of the
Solar Palace), one of the 20 or 24 guardian devas.
Sūryaprabha is often depicted with Candraprabha ("having the
light of the moon"), called in Chinese Yuegong Yueguang Pusa
(The Bright Lunar Bodhisattva of the Lunar Palace), Yuegong
Yueguang Tianzi ( The Bright Lunar Prince of the Lunar Palace),
or Yuegong Yueguang Zuntian Pusa (The Greatly Revered
Bright Lunar Prince of the Lunar Palace). Together with
Bhaiṣajyaguru Buddha (Chinese: Yaoshi Fo) these two
bodhisattvas constitute the Dongfang San Sheng (Three Holy
Sages of the Eastern Quarter).
The devas Surya and Candra are also recognized as deities that
embody the Sun and Moon, respectively.

x In Chinese
mythology, Taiyang Shen, is the Chinese solar deity.
In Chinese mythology (cosmology), there were originally ten
suns in the sky, who were all brothers. They were supposed to
emerge one at a time as commanded by the Jade Emperor. They
were all very young and loved to fool around. Once they decided
to all go into the sky to play, all at once. This made the world
too hot for anything to grow. A hero named Hou Yi, honored to
this day, shot down nine of them with a bow and arrow to save
the people of the Earth.
In another myth, the solar eclipse was caused by the magical dog
of heaven biting off a piece of the Sun. The referenced event is
said to have occurred around 2,160BCE. There was a tradition in
China to make lots of loud celebratory sounds during a solar
eclipse to scare the sacred "dog" away.
The Deity of the Sun in Chinese mythology is Ri Gong Tai
Yang Xing Jun (Tai Yang Gong / Grandfather Sun) or Star Lord
of the Solar Palace, Lord of the Sun. In some mythologies, Tai
Yang Xing Jun is believed to be Hou Yi. Tai Yang Xing Jun is
usually depicted with the Star Lord of the Lunar Palace, Lord of
the Moon, Yue Gong Tai Yin Xing Jun (Tai Yin Niang Niang /
Lady Tai Yin). Worship of the moon goddess Chang'e and her
festivals are very popular among followers of Chinese folk
religion and Taoism. Similar to Santa Claus and Christmas in
the West, the goddess and her holy days are ingrained in
Chinese popular culture.
 Baltic mythology
Those who practice Dievturība, beliefs of traditional Latvian
culture, celebrate the Sun goddess, Saule, known in traditional
Lithuanian beliefs as Saulė. Saule/Saulė is among the most
important deities in Baltic mythology and traditions.

The sun in Insular Celtic culture is

assumed to have been feminine, and several goddesses have
been proposed as possibly solar in character. In Continental
Celtic culture, the sun gods, like Belenos, Grannos, and Lug,
were masculine.
In Irish, the name of the Sun, Grian, is feminine. The figure
known as Áine is generally assumed to have been either
synonymous with her, or her sister, assuming the role of
Summer Sun while Grian was the Winter Sun. Similarly, Étaín
has at times been considered to be another theonym associated
with the Sun; if this is the case, then the pan-Celtic Epona might
also have been originally solar in nature, though Roman
syncretism pushed her towards a lunar role.

`
Another speculation connects the biblical elements of Christ's
life to those of a sun god. The Christian gospels report that Jesus
had 12 followers , Apostles, which is claimed to be akin to the
twelve zodiac constellations. When the Sun was in the house of
Scorpio, Judas plotted with the chief priests and elders to arrest
Jesus by kissing him. As the Sun exited Libra, it enters into the
waiting arms of Scorpio to be kissed by Scorpio's bite.
Many of the world's sacrificed godmen, such as Osiris and
Mithra, have their traditional birthday on 25 December. During
this time, people believed that the "sun god" had "died" for three
days and was "born again" on 25 December. After 25 December,
the Sun supposedly moves one degree north, foreshadowing
longer days. The three days following 21 December remain the
darkest days of the year where Jesus, the sun, dies and remains
unseen for three days.
At the beginning of the first century, the Sun on the vernal
equinox passed from Aries to Pisces. That harmonizes with the
mentioned lamb and fish in the gospels. The man carrying a
pitcher of water is Aquarius, the water bearer, who is always
seen as a man pouring out a pitcher of water. He represents the
Age of Aquarius, the age after Pisces, and when the Sun leaves
the Age of Pisces (Jesus), it will go into the House of Aquarius.
The idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on
25 December because this was the date of an already existing
festival of the Sol Invictus was expressed in an annotation to a
manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-
Salibi. It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25
December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights
in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the
Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the
Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this
festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity
should be solemnised on that day.
Christians adopted the image of the Sun (Helios or Sol Invictus)
to represent Christ. In this portrayal he is a beardless figure with
a flowing cloak in a chariot drawn by four white horses,
 Solar gods have a strong
presence in Indonesian mythology. In some cases the Sun is
revered as a "father" or "founder" of the tribe. This may apply
for the whole tribe or only for the royal and ruling families. This
practise is more common in Australia and on the island of Timor,
where the tribal leaders are seen as direct heirs to the sun god.
The Sun God Ra and Ancient Egypt

The Sun God and the Wind Deity at Kizil by

Tianshu Zhu, in Transoxiana Eran ud Aneran, WeWhen the
pharaoh Ikhnaton reformed Egyptian religion, he took up the
cult of the ancient deity Re-Horakhte under the name of Aton,
an older designation of the Sun’s disk. Under Akhenaton, the
sun’s qualities as creator and nourisher of the Earth and its
inhabitants are glorified.
The sun god occupied a central position in both Sumerian and
Akkadian religion, but neither the Sumerian Utu nor the Semitic
Shamash was included among the three highest gods of the
pantheon. The sun was one of the most popular deities, however,
among the Indo-European peoples and was a symbol of divine
power to them.
The most famous type of solar cult is the Sun Dance of the
Plains Indians of North America. In the pre-Columbian
civilizations of Mexico and Peru, sun worship was a prominent
feature. In Aztec religion extensive human sacrifice was
demanded by the sun gods Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca. In
both Mexican and Peruvian ancient religion, the Sun occupied
an important place in myth and ritual. The ruler in Peru was an
incarnation of the sun god, Inti. In Japan the sun goddess,
Amaterasu, who played an important role in ancient mythology
and was considered to be the supreme ruler of the world, was the
tutelary deity of the imperial clan, and to this day the sun
symbols represent the Japanese state.Sun god" redirects here.
Other cultures that have sun goddesses include the Lithuanians
(Saulė) and Latvians (Saule), the Finns (Päivätär, Beiwe) and
the related Hungarians. Sun goddesses are found around the
world in Australia (Bila, Walo), India (Bisal-Mariamna,
Bomong, Sāvitri, Savitā, Suryā, Kn Sgni), among the Hittites
(Wurusemu), and Egyptians (Sekhmet), in the Canary Islands
(Chaxiraxi)/(Magek), in Native America, among the Cherokee
(Unelanuhi), Natchez (Wal Sil), Inuit (Malina), and Miwok
(Hekoolas), and in Asia among the Japanese (Amaterasu).