Abstract
THE “SUN GOD” IN INDIAN ART.—The development in the iconography of Surya in Brahmanical art is the subject of a study by Jitendra Nath Banerjee which appears in the September issue of the Indian Antiquary. In Vedic ceremonies symbols such as the spoked wheel, rayed disc, etc., were used to represent the sun. Anthropomorphic images of the sun god do not appear until late in Indian art owing to the disappearance of monuments, other than Bhuddist, prior in date to Asoka. The characteristic features of the type of the sun-god images which have been discovered in Northern India are top-boots, a close-fitting bodice-like garment, and a waist zone which has been identified with the sacred woollen girdle of the Zoroastrians. This type has been assumed to be Iranian, derived from Mithra; but the anthropomorphic representation of Mithra is due to the Hellenisation of Mithra and is derived from Apollo-Helios. The type first appears in India on a coin of Kaniska. The medieval booted sun god of India is thus derived from the Hellenistic Apollo with certain added characteristics—the boots and heavy tunic—to be attributed to the Scythian invaders who followed the Hellenes. Ingenious myths were invented to account for these alien characteristics. In Southern India they were forgotten, and the sun god is there represented without his boots and heavy draperies.
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Research Items. Nature 116, 625–627 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116625a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116625a0