Surya

Surya is the King of the Planets and God of the Sun. He is one of the five major deities of Hinduism and the leader of the Navagrahas, or nine planets. He has survived as a primary deity in Hinduism, in which he was worshiped as the supreme personality of saguna brahman and lord of the Trimurti, of whom the three were considered to be his manifestations; Surya is Brahma in the morning, Vishnu in the afternoon and Shiva in the evening. The worship of Surya declined greatly around the 13th century, perhaps as a result of the Muslim conquest of north India. In certain aspects, Surya has tended to be merged into the Trimurti, or seen as subsidary to them and reduced to a rank equal to Indra in the hierarchy of the gods.

Family
Surya was first married to Saranyu, who represented the dawn. Later, unable to bear the extreme radiance of her husband, she created a shadow of herself and left after giving birth to Yama and Yami. Surya then consorted with the shadow, Chhaya who gave birth to Shani. After finding about the location of Saranyu, he brought her back and fathered the Ashvins. To accomadate Saranyu, her father came upon an agreement with Surya to reduce his heat and powers to 1⁄8 of its original might. The solar matter which fell to the earth were then used to craft the Pushpaka Vimana for Brahma, Sudarshan Chakra for Vishnu and Trishula for Shiva. After this, he fathered Vaivasvata Manu who was considered to be the progenitor of humanity in the hindu creation myth. In ramayana, he fathered the monkey king, sugriva who helped rama against ravana. In mahabharata, he fathered the great hero, karna as his incarnation.

Characteristics
Surya is often depicted with golden hair and arms while riding a horse-drawn chariot. His four arms hold a conch shell, a chakra and a lotus flower. His chariot either has seven horses, or one horse with seven heads. They represent the colours of the rainbow.