PLATE III
Sūrya
As the text-books enjoin, the Sun-God is "clad in the dress of the Northerners [i.e. Persians], so as to be covered from the feet upward to the bosom. He holds two lotuses growing out of his hands, wears a diadem and a necklace hanging down, has his face adorned with ear-rings, and a girdle round his waist." His figure thus suggests Iranian influence, especially as the sacred girdle was worn by the Magas, who traced their descent to the Magians of Persia. While the sun-cult was known in India in the Vedic period, it received new life from Iran. From a sculpture at Moḍherā, Gujarāt. After Burgess and Cousens, The Architectural Antiquities of Northern Gujarat, Plate LVI, No. 5. See also pp. 138-39, 183-84.
