365bet娱乐

Chapter Three鈥�Surya鈥擳he most interesting references to Surya, the daughter of of the sun-god Surya (sometimes of Savitr), concern her wedding hymn Rigveda X : 85. Most of the gods desire her, but her father wishes to give her to Soma; however, it is settled that the first to reach the sun will wed her. The Agvins win the race and the bride, and although Surya' is said to be given to Pusan³ and to 2 be wooed by Soma, the other references to her in the Rigveda almost always describe her as riding in the chariot of husbands (Asvins), who after winning her attained all that they have desired. Although it may be implied that Surya is fair and desirable, there is actually little description of her beyond the rather obscure A 4 picture in the famour hymn, "in which she seems to be likened to the sacrifice, and is said to pervade the cosmos --- in this hymn her husband is Soma. 66 Scholars differ regarding the identity of Surya as a distinct personality. E.H. Meyer interprets the Surya myths so as to make her a cloud-goddess (Indogermanische Mythologie. Vol. II, p. 673). Many scholars regard her as the dawn, identifying her with Usas, and interpret her marriage to the Asvins as the proximity of the 1 Rigveda VI:58.4. 2 Rigveda X : 8.59. 3 Rigveda VIII : 8.10 4 Rigveda : X.85.

3 276 morning and evening stars to dawn and dusk. Hillebrandt in his Vedische Mythologie identifies Surya with Usas, and Mannhardt supports this view. oldenberg, however, is opinion that Surya is the 'sun-maiden. This view is supported by very old concepts of the feminine sun (cf Die Sonne in German) as she is celebrated in many old Teutonic myths and also in the fairy-tales told by the brothers Grimm. *The motif of the sun as a goddess instead of as a god is a rare and precious survival from an archaic, apparently once widely diffused, mythological The great maternal divinity of South Arabia context. the A The is feminine sun Ilat. Throughout Siberia as well as in North America scattered stories survive of a female sun' (Joseph Campbell, "The hero with a thousand faces", p. 213.) The Japanese sun-goddess Amataresu is another example. sun is mild and pleasant in Siberia, North America and northern Europe, hence the tendency of the mythopoeic mind to imagine it as a maiden who bestows mild warmth is quite understandable, and this may have lead to the creation of Surya. The Sun-goddess of Arinna was sometimes addressed as a god. The transformation of a god into a goddess and vice versa is not uncommon in mythology; one remembers the Japanese Kwannon, goddess of mercy, who is just a geminine form of the Avalokitesvara Buddha transplanted in Japan. Thus Surya and Surya would appear at the mutually convertible forms of the sun, the conversion only emphasised certain"i power and brilliance in the masculine form, warmth, charm and mildness in the feminine Maitrayani-samhita form. traits n 5 Dr. Sukumari Bhattacharji. The Indian Theogony, pp. 224-225.