Surya Relief in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, June 2018

Surya (Primary Title)

Unknown (Artist)

Date: 19th century

Culture: Indian

Category: Sculpture

Medium: honey-colored sandstone with traces of pigment

Collection: South Asian Art

Geography: Rajasthan, India

Dimensions: Overall: 26 1/4 × 37 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (66.68 × 95.25 × 19.05 cm)
Overall (with stand): 32 × 37 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (81.28 × 95.25 × 19.05 cm)

Object Number: 96.34


This charming sandstone relief depicts the Hindu sun god Surya riding in his celestial chariot. He is pulled through the sky by seven horses, representing the days of the week, and dynamically rendered as a receding arc of heads emerging from a single body. Driving these horses and preceding Surya's appearance is his charioteer Aruna, a Sanskrit word meaning the color of the rising sun. More pictorial than many images of Indian deities, this relief may have once formed part of a longer narrative. Even in his bubble of fiery rays, the sun god is presented here less as a remote cosmic deity than as a local leader who might one day ride through an ordinary Indian village.

Text from: www.vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-108579554