Saura (Hinduism)

Saura or Saurya (Sanskrit: सौर्य, romanized: Saurya)^[1] is a denomination of Hinduism^[2] whose adherents worship the Sun god Surya as the Saguna Brahman. In the contemporary period, the Sauras are a very small movement, much smaller than other larger denominations such as Vaishnavism or Shaivism. There was a rapid decline of the Sauras in the 12th and 13th century CE, due to the Muslim conquests. Their heartlands, primarily in Western Punjab, were the first lands in India, barring Sindh, to fall in these conquests.^{[citation needed]}

History

The Sun has been worshipped in various forms since the time of the Rigveda in India. The prominence of the Saura sect is expounded by the supremacy of the Gayatri Mantra in the Vedic prayers. The theology of the sect appears in a number of documents like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Markandeya Purana, and a fifth century inscription.^[3]

Mahabharata

On one occasion, when leaving his chambers in the morning, Yudhishthira encounters one thousand Saura Brahmins with eight thousand followers.^[4]

Worship

The priests of the Saura sect were called magas, bhojakas, or sakadivipiya Brahmins.^[5] In the Saura sect, the god Surya is the lord of the Trimurti, the eternal Brahman, and the supreme spirit, the soul of all creatures, self-existent, unborn, the cause of all things and the foundation of the world. The worship of the Sun is prescribed to be performed by its adoration during various periods (just-risen, the meridian, and setting), chanting the deity's prayers, and the wearing of his marks in the form of a circular red tilaka on the forehead.^[6]

Texts

The most important text of the Saura sect is the Saura Samhita. Its only extant copy is currently in Nepal and has been dated to 941 CE, but is considered to be older. Another text of importance is the Surya Shataka, a Sanskrit poem of a hundred stanzas. The poem was composed in the sragdhara meter and written in the gaudi style by Mayurbhatta, a poet in the court of Harshavardhana and a rival of Banabhatta. Surya as the bestower of moksha (release) is emphasised in this text. The Samba Purana, a Saura Upapurana, is a text entirely dedicated to Surya.^[7]