I SŪrya

If the Milky Way is the celestial embodiment of Savitar, Sūrya, the Sun, comes close to being that of Mitra and Varuṇa. The Sun is their eye, for his gaze is wide (VII.35.8) and falls on everyone (I.50.2). The Sun watches over the good and evil deeds of humans (VI.51.2, VII.60.2–3) and, so the poet hopes, declares the innocence of the sacrificers to Mitra and Varuṇa (VII.60.1, 62.2). The Sun is the felly that rolls toward Mitra and Varuṇa (V.62.2) or the chariot that the two gods set in heaven (V.63.7). Since he is so closely linked to the Ādityas, he himself is called an Āditya (I.50.13, 191.9; VIII.101.11). His link to the Ādityas is also a link to the king, who oversees his subjects the way that the Sun oversees all beings (X.121 and Proferes 2007: 137–41).

However, Sūrya is not associated exclusively with the Ādityas. He is a form of Agni, Agni Vaiśvānara, and the face of Agni.+++(4)+++

Not only the Ādityas (IV.13.2) or Mitra and Varuṇa (V.63.4), but also Varuṇa and Indra (VII.82.3), Agni (X.3.2), Soma (VI.44.23, IX.86.22), and Indra and Viṣṇu (VII.99.4) are said to have given birth to the Sun, to have caused him rise to heaven, or to have established his brilliance.

A number of images depict the movement of the sun through the heavens. The Sun flies through the air on a chariot pulled by seven horses or seven mares (I.50.8, 9, IV.13.3, V.45.9), or the Sun is a wheel pulled by only one horse, Etaśa (VII.63.2). The Sun is also the “reddish eagle” (V.77.3) or a falcon (V.45.9), or he flies like a falcon (VII.63.5).

Myth

However, there are relatively few narratives concerning the Sun. One repeated but mysterious story is that Indra stole or tore off the wheel of the Sun. He did so in order to help his ally Kutsa in Kutsa’s battle against Śuṣṇa (I.130.9, 175.4, IV.30.4, V.29.10). What exactly Indra accomplished by doing this and how this helped Kutsa remain unclear.