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Rig Veda · 1026 of 1027
1.THIS spotted Bull hath come, and sat before the Mother in the east, Advancing to his Father heaven.
2.Expiring when he draws his breath, she moves along the lucid spheres: The Bull shines out through all the sky.
3.Song is bestowed upon the Bird: it rules supreme through thirty realms Throughout the days at break of morn.
Asked of Guide
Why is Sūrya called a 'spotted Bull' who 'sat before the Mother in the east'?
The hymn names Sūrya as a ‘spotted Bull’ to give the sun a living, potent form: a vigorous male creature that arrives at dawn and takes position before the Mother in the east, which is the world or earth receiving his light. The image ties cosmic birth and sustenance together—Sūrya ‘advancing to his Father heaven’ portrays a movement between generative powers that animate the sky and earth.
Line 3 links that embodiment to expression: ‘Song is bestowed upon the Bird’ and it ‘rules supreme through thirty realms’ at morning, so the sun’s arrival awakens speech, order, and dominion across the cosmos. This theme echoes other Vedic hymns where cosmic beings appear as animals and birds to describe natural functions, as in the Nasadiya and other Rigveda cosmologies that give phenomena agentive, ritual roles.
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