Savitar

Savitar, the Aditya of Jyeshtha, is the impeller, the aspect of the sun that sets things in motion. His name comes from a root meaning to urge forth, and the Vedic hymns picture him as a golden-handed god who raises the world to activity each dawn and lays it to rest at dusk. The distinction that tradition draws is subtle: Savitar is not so much the visible disc as the quickening power behind the light, the force that wakes the mind and the day together.

His best known presence is in the Gayatri mantra, which is addressed to Savitar and asks that his radiance inspire the understanding of those who meditate. That is why the mantra stands at the heart of the daily sandhya practice and of the Upanayana ceremony, in which a young student is traditionally given the Gayatri. It is a prayer for awakened intelligence, not for any external result.

In the twelve-Aditya scheme his light is the moment the sun crosses the horizon and stirs all life. Because the Gayatri is said at dawn, noon and dusk, Savitar is the Aditya most woven into ordinary daily practice. Lists of Adityas are not identical across the texts, and in some of them Savitar is treated as a name of Surya himself, so the boundary between the two is one of emphasis. Suryanaar Kovil in Tamil Nadu is the temple most often connected with this form.