The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s6.38

v1.c16.s6.38

The connexion of the gods with Sūryā presents difficulties in that it is not at all clear what Sūryā represents: Mannhardt² suggests for her the Dawn, E. H. Meyer³ the goddess of the clouds, while Oldenberg⁴ thinks that Sūryā means literally the sun-maiden as the feminine form of the sun, the alternative expression ‘daughter of the sun’ being invented to remove the apparent inconsistency of the usage. It is difficult to feel any certainty as to this identification: the fact that Soma is said to marry the maiden does increase the probability that she is the sun, but the further fact that Pūṣan also marries her makes the idea less likely. Ingenuity might also connect the legend of the victory of the Açvins in a chariot race at the wedding of Sūryā to Soma as a trace of an older version, in which the Açvins were able to win her hand by showing their superior swiftness to the other wooers in a chariot race, and this idea would carry us into the sphere of conceptions which are seen in the Indian Svayaṁvara, but common sense forbids us to combine priestly speculations in this manner.⁵