[Advaita-l] Question

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006, savithri devaraj wrote:

>
> Our balavihar class this past Sunday was all about
> Sun, uttarAyana, Sankranthi, etc.

Don't know if you covered this in your class but I thought I'd mention it;
Makarasankranti is referred to, in Gujarati atleast, as uttarayana but the 
true astronomical uttarayana i.e. winter solstice is on December 21st.  Makara 
sankranti is when the sun enters Capricorn a month later.

> A question came up
> as we were discussing the names of Sun god - What is
> the story behind Sun being called Aditya?
>
> All I know is that Aditi and Sage Kasyapa were parents
> to all life forms including the 12 adityas. I believe
> there must be more details to this either in the vedas
> or the purANas. I appreciate any help.
>

The Vedic Devas are sometimes ennumerated as 33. 12 Adityas, 11 Rudras, 8 
Vasus, and 2 Ashvinas.  Of these 12 Adityas, Vivasvata or Surya is the 
eldest and hence specially deserves the name Aditya.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>