60 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XVI, 
cal gods of India 
6. Of — ritual _— applicable to Surya there is 
no information ; but, all the gods were worshipped so, no 
doubt, was ey possibly with ag woe sian ritual. “Adoration 
to Sary @ «.,.celebra te the rite! enjoined by him and sing 
his praise.” (RV x, 37! 
Post-VEDIC. 
Between the Vedas and any wae body of Indian 
inatare there is probably a big time-gap. At any rate the 
intervening period sufficed to alter considerably the general 
ee of the celestial deities. In the Atharva Veda there 
are indications of the coming change. In the Brahmanas?” 
the Adityas are twelve and represent the twelve months of the 
year. Later the whole group became merged into one sun-god. 
named indiscriminately Strya, Savitri, Mitra, Aryaman, 
Pishan, etc. In the Upanishads the sun is of great impor- 
tance.’ In the epics a sort of heliolatry is indicated : :* the 
devotes a canto to his praise.6 The Jatkas’ also refer to the 
worship of the sun; the Puranas relate solar myths, tell of a 
race of solar kings ® and give in outline the ritual of sun 
worship that still obtains.® 
Already there are indications of two conceptions of the 
solar deity that were, possibly, independent of each other or even 
fundamentally antagonistic—the one being purely Hindu and 
the other of foreign origin or largely ih ened: by exotic cults. 
In Hinduism the sun “is blended so inextricably with the 
1 The repr heat gd is not certain. 
2 §B vi, 1, 28; xi 
Seay tyaaltie palit meditates on the sun as ‘ the self ’ (Ch. U. i 
il). ‘* That golden person who is seen within the sun....is the lord of ‘all 
the worlds” (Ch. U. 1, 68-8), Chapter iii of the same Upanishad is a 
meditation upon the rays of “= sun, etc. See also the Kaushitaki 
ype ad ii, i ete., ge vii, 8216 
106. Agastya says—‘‘ on ighty Rama, ititon to the old mys- 
tery rs pc thou wilt conquer all t hy foes in the bat Meme Having daily 
pia sigs the Aig renters the holy prayer bli destroys all enemies, 
victory, removes all sins, sorrows and ress, increases i 
which is the blessing ‘of al blessings the sple 
d sun, who is respected by both h gods ‘and on ‘who gives light to 
on No and is the rich lord of all the worlds, etc., etc 
, 534, ete. Ed. E. B. Cowen, 
8 Compare the official cult of the Sol invictus instituted by igh a 
(A.D. 970-275) and its connexion with the worship of the Emperors. 
eee of Udaipur, J odh es J bsg and Sirmiir claim to be of the ‘ dine 
