Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c8.s1.12

c8.s1.12

*Sūrya* and *Chandra* are two great symbols honoured from the Vedas up to now. The two opposite principles of Heat (*Ghrāṃsa*) and Cold (*Hima*, AV. 13.1.46) are typified by them, as also the inseparable pair of the male and the female, father and mother, *Prāṇa* and *Apāna*, *Piṅgalā* and *Iḍā*. The pair of Sūrya and Chandra is depicted in Gupta art and also in Sasanian Iran, a common motif is found on the Kulah caps of the statuettes of Daṇḍa and Piṅgala attendants of Sūrya (*Chandra-divākara*). In folk lore the motif is repeated and also depicted in folk art up to our own day under the name of *Chaṇḍa-Sūraj*. The basal duality of the creative process appears as Sūrya and Chandra, the one changeless and eternal, resplendent with its own lustre, and the other waxing and waning with borrowed light; the former as the principle of *Buddhi* centred in the Divine and the latter of *Manas* pursuing the other.