This is a grandly crowned and haloed image of the sun god, Surya. He can be identified as standing in samabhanga (equipoise) holding lotuses with curved stalks in both hands. He is riding a chariot drawn by seven horses driven by Arun, the charioteer. Surya is accompanied by celestial and auspicious beings, wielding bow and arrow on either side near his feet in a much smaller scale. It is interesting to note that Surya is wearing boots and he is the only Hindu god to be seen wearing any footwear. He is also wearing a tunic – a foreign garment as opposed to the dhotis (a lower garment of unstitched cloth tied around the waist) of other Hindu deities, a very early representation of Vedic Hinduism.
