This sculpture of the highly venerated Deva depicts Him with His usual two hands, seated in padmasana in His chariot. In each of His hands is a lotus, an image of the sun itself constituting the halo behind His towering crown. Seated before the ornately engraved compartment of the chariot, with the reins of all the seven horses in His hands, is Aruna, the charioteer of Soorya. Born to Kashyapa (a Vedic rishee) and Aditi (who is the heavenly mother figure), He is sung about in the Rigveda. Samja, the daughter of Vishvakarma, is His wife, and He is the father of Manu, Yama, and Yami. It is from fragments of His superb glamour that the signature weapons of the other devas (the trishool of Shiva, the discus of Vishnu, and the lance of Karttikeya) have been fashioned. Understandably, He is the chief of the lords of the respective planets in the solar system. Having been somewhat replaced by the Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva trinity in terms of importance, He is the chosen deity of worship during new-year festivities in Nepal and in the South. This sculpture of the chariot-borne Soorya is replete with the splendour expounded poetically in the oldest of the Vedas.
