further information see John Stratton
Hawley, Krishna:The Butter Thief, 1983,
and Surdas: Poet,Singer,Saint1984; see
also John Stratton Hawley and Mark
Juergensmeyer (trans.), Songs of the
Saints of India, 1988.
Surya
The sun, both in its physical form as a
celestial phenomenon and personified
as a deity. The sun has been an impor-
tant deity as far back as the Vedas, the
earliest and most authoritative Hindu
religious texts, and has retained a posi-
tion of some importance since that time.
One example of this is the Gayatri
Mantra, a sacred formula that is sup-
posed to be recited every day by twice-
bornmales, that is, men from the three
“twice-born” groups—brahmin, ksha-
triya, and vaishya—who have under-
gone the adolescent religious initiation
known as the “second birth.” The
Gayatri Mantra invokes the sun as the
generator and nourisher of all things,
and requests him to stimulate the minds
of those who perceive him. Surya is still
worshiped by many Smartabrahmins as
one of the “five-fold” (panchayatana)
deities (the others being Shiva, Vishnu,
the Goddess, and Ganesh), a practice
attributed to the Advaita philosopher
Shankaracharya. For some time Surya
was also the primary deity for certain
communities, particularly in eastern
India, although his cult has been largely
eclipsed in recent times. The most
spectacular example of this worship
is the temple of the sun at Konarak
(now ruined), whose claims to fame
stem from its enormous size and
the profuse eroticsculptures on its
exterior walls. For further information
see Vibhuti Bhushan Mishra,
Religious Beliefs and Practices of
North India During the Early Medieval
Period, 1973; and Sarat Chandra
Mitra, The Cult of the Sun God in
Medieval Eastern Bengal, 1986. See also
panchayatana puja.Surya
A painted relief of Surya, the sun god.