The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.142.1

v1.c11.142.1

**Heliolatry:** The earliest god of the Aryans was the great luminary of the day, the manifest symbol of the unmanifest Divinity, who creates and sustains the universe. What his first name exactly *was*, we know not; but there is little doubt that it was formed of a root like *sur* or *sar* or *sṛ* whence the Greek *helios* and the Latin *sol* by the regular mutation of the *s* and *r*, and Sūrya was one of his earliest names according to the *Ṛgveda Saṃhitā*. How Sūrya changed into Viṣṇu has already been shown, and as Viṣṇu rose to importance, Sūrya *alias* Āditya fell back, till in the time of the Purāṇas he was relegated to a very subordinate position, and the bulk of his worhsippers ranged themselves in the ranks of the followers of Viṣṇu, Śiva and Śakti. A few only remained faithful to him, and continued to adore him for their salvation, and these were known by the name of Saura or the worshippers of Sūrya, who, according to the Purāṇas, formed one of the five leading sects of the Hindus, viz., the Vaisṇavas, the Śaivas, the Śāktas, the Sauras and the Gāṇapatyas. Their number, however daily contracted, and at the beginning of the twelfth century, Halāyudha, in his *Brāhmaṇa Sarvasva*, or the circle of the duties of Brāhmaṇas, but barely mentioned them without giving any details about the initiation of neophytes into that sect;