The Sun, worship, kolam and me
Today is called Sunday that brings to mind Sun, doesn't it? All over the world in many places, this day seems to be dedicated to Sun, so we hear the names - Søndag in Danish, zondag in Dutch, Sonntag in German, søndag in Norwegian and of course 'Ravivar in Hindi, Rabibara in Bengali or ஞாயிறு in Tamizh.
You know that we worship Sun and thank him during pongal, right? That is also known as Sankaranthi in Andhra and Karnataka and it is celebrated in many places across the country.
Sun is the source of all energy and heat for life on earth. So from very early days, like many thousands of years ago, people must have looked up and observed how the sun heats up the earth, gives enough warmth for seeds to grow or suck water from different water bodies, keep the water droplets in clouds and pour down as rain - which we all enjoy, don't we?
You hear people chanting mantras from Vedas, right? The earliest veda is Rig veda and one mantra praises the sun- as one who removes darkness when he rises in the morning. Many more prayers are found in the Vedas.
You mentioned about 'Aditya Hridayam' - Hope you know in which story/purana it comes? Yes, sage (Rishi)Agasthya has taught that to Rama and gave him some powerful Ashthras (weapons like missiles) also to Rama.
Mahabharata has many stories with Surya - how can we not remember Karna, son of Surya?
 Egypt |
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| Helius, Greek god of sun |
Like people were finding things to make life more and more comfortable, learning about planets, the sun and wrote beautiful poems and stories or built beautiful palaces and temples in our country, elsewhere in the world too, human beings were discovering many things by observation. Many of those early people like our ancestors understood the importance of Sun to life on earth. So they also worshipped Sun god in different ways with different names. You know, how much our farmers closely observe the Sun and plan sowing, weeding, transplanting and other activities, don't you? Some plants need more heat with good rains while some others need a cool climate but no rain.
Far away, across the Arabian Sea, over Arabia, to our west is a country called Egypt. Heard of that country or the famous river Nile? The most important God was Re or Ra that is the Sun God.
There are wonderful stories connected to Sun as God in different countries. When you have the right kind of interest and curiosity, they will find you.
There may be many questions knocking on your brain walls, I can imagine them trying to pop out of the corner of your eyes! Haha...!
Do you wonder why there are not many temples to Sun in our country? There must have been lot of importance to Sun long back with lot of people worshipping him. There are temples or remains of some beautiful temples These can be found in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Odisa and Assam.
Some of them, even though broken and in ruins, are so beautiful. In the temple at Konark in Odisa, during a particular day, the rays of rising sun falls straight on the main God inside.
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