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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMBER, 1925
Aruna, carved on the pedestal of the image. But the number of the horses shown in the pedestal of these images is not always seven, and reliefs with four horses, though rare, can also be found in India 23.
The epigraphic records of the Gupta emperors tell us about the many endowments by pious devotees, of temples and images in honour of the Sun-god24 Titles like Paramadityabhakta, and names such as Adityasena, Adityavardhana, Adityavarman, Prabhakaravardhan, etc., borne by the kings and chiefs mentioned in the Gupta inscriptions, unmistakably refer to the very wide expansion of the solar cult in northern India. But the images and temples of the Sun then erected have almost all been destroyed, and the ruins of these temples, in some cases at least, can be identified as those of temples of the Sun only through the evidence of the inscriptions which still remains
As regards the images, they are almost invariably lost. One inscribed image, however, was discovered by Mr. J. D. M. Beglar in 1879-80 and was first brought to notice in Cunningham's Archæological Survey Reports, vol. XV, p. 12. The date for the installation of the image is presumed to fall in A.D. 672-73, and though the image itself cannot be traced now, it has been described," as a man 2 st. 10 in, high, holding a water lily (lotus ?) in each hand, and with a small standing figure, on each side, that on the right being armed with a club.... " This short notice of the image of the Sun does not enable us to assert that it was of a type identical with many Sürya images discovered in Northern India, which have found their way to one or other of the museums of India. The essential features of such a type can be ascertained if we carefully examine some of these images 26. These are, the seven-horsed chariot of Surya with Aruna as the driver; the Sun-god with his legs covered, wearing bodice and jewels, with his two hands carrying two full-blown lotuses, his head adorned with kirita makuta; his two male attendants, one on each side, holding pen and ink-pot and sword, two female figures on either side in the alidha and pratydlid ha poses shooting arrows, and two or three female attendants. The figure of the Sun, and sometimes the figures of both the male attendants, too, have their feet encased in some sort of leggings. Sometimes the legs of these three figures are left uncarved and shown as inserted in the pedestal or what stands for the chariot 27. Another feature of this Sun-image is the peculiar girdle or waist zone which is depicted by the sculptors on the body of the image. This is referred to in iconographic texts As avya nga and has been rightly identified by scholars with the Avestan aiwiyaonghana, the sacred woollen thread girdle, which a Zoroastrian is enjoined to wear round the waist28. The boots, the close fitting bodice-like garment and this waist zone are the most prominent characteristics of this type of image, and their bearing on the evolution of the type will have to be duly considered.
The iconographic texts, which lay down rules for the making of images, are handed down to us in the pages of several of the Puranas, viz., Agni, Matsya, Padma, Vion udharmóttara, etc. in the Agamas, the Tantras, and works of early da te like the Brhat-Samhita of Varahamihira.
22 The seven horses and Aruna are frequently absent in the South Indian images of Surya.
33 Cat. of the Museum of Archæology at Sarnath, by D. R. Sahni, p. 322 ; M. Ganguly's Orissa and its remains, p. 356; Dr. Vogel's Mathura Museum Cataiogue, pp. 104-05, D 46.
24 Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, 'Vainaviom, Saivism, and Minor Religious Systems,' p. 154; Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 68, 79, 126, 161, 208, 214, 288.
36 ASIAR., 1916-17, P. 14, pl. IX B. This marble temple of the Sun, one of the oldest Sarya temples known to us, is situated at Varman in the Sirohi State, Rajputana. For later Sun temples, which are still extant, we may refer to Suryanarkkoil in the Tanjore District (Gopinath Rao, vol. I, pt. II, p. 300), Modhora in Gujarat and Kondrak in Orissa.
30 cj. Dr. Bloch's Supplementary Cat. of the Archeological Exhibite in the Indian Museum, No. 3927, 5820, eto. Of. also the accompanying Plate II.
37 j. ibid., No. 3926, and Dr. Bloch's remarks in the footnotu ou page 79. See also the images of Steya at Ellora, Gopinath Rao vol. I, part II, p. 313, and pl. LXXXVIII fig. 2.
28 Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, 1918, p. 287.
