The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2166 page)

 
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see SURYA.

 
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see
DITYAS
;
S
RYA
.

 
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S
vitr
.

Hindu Goddess, daughter of the Sun (Savitar). She is known as the mother of the
Vedas
, and is often identified with
G
yatr
(thus seen as a personification of
g Veda
3. 62. 10, the G
yatr
mantra
, addressed to Savitar). A lengthy poetic reworking of the S
vitr
legend by Sri
Aurobindo Ghose
follows the careers of the various characters in the story as an allegory of the divinization of human life, a concept central to Aurobindo's philosophy. In the West, the composer Gustav Holst (1874–1934), having learnt Sanskrit in order to write
Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda
(1908–12), composed the chamber opera
Savitri
(1908, first staged 1916).