Sūrya, the Sun, stands at the center of the Jyotiṣa planetary schema as the kāraka (significator) of the ātman — the soul, the self, the principle of individual consciousness illuminating its own ground. Unlike the Moon, which reflects and contains, the Sun radiates from an inexhaustible interior source, making it the natural ruler of all that is authoritative, sovereign, and self-luminous. Parāśara describes Sūrya as having a copper-red complexion, bilious constitution (pitta-dominant), sparse hair, sharp intelligence, square physique, and eyes that observe with steady, penetrating clarity. The Sun’s nature is classified as natural malefic (naisargika pāpa) — not because it causes harm by intent, but because its intensity and individuality burn away the softer, relational, and accommodating dimensions of experience.
The kārakatva (significations) of Sūrya are extensive: the soul (ātman), the father, the government, authority figures, vitality (prāṇa), the right eye, the heart, bone structure (especially the spine), wheat, copper, gold, places of worship, forests, and the eastern direction. In a natal chart, the Sun’s house position reveals the life area where the individual seeks to express their authentic self and establish genuine authority. The fifth house is particularly significant for Sūrya’s significations of intelligence and children; the tenth house (karma bhāva) links directly to the Sun’s association with career and public recognition. Bṛhat Jātaka notes that the Sun in good dignity produces leadership qualities, government favor, and a dignified bearing that commands natural respect without requiring assertion.
Sūrya’s relationship with the twelve houses reveals its contextual expressions. In the first house, the Sun produces an authoritative, luminous personality with strong vitality and leadership capacity. In the seventh, it can challenge partnerships through the solar insistence on self-expression. In the twelfth, it may indicate foreign residence, spiritual practice, or expenditure of vitality. Classical texts from both Parāśara and Varāhamihira note that the Sun in a kendra (angular house — 1, 4, 7, 10) is particularly powerful in strengthening the chart’s overall vitality and the native’s capacity for purposeful action in the world.
Sūrya’s exaltation at 10° Meṣa is significant: the vernal point of the sidereal zodiac, where the Sun’s vitality and sovereignty find their natural culmination. In Meṣa, the Sun is among warriors (the sign belongs to the kṣatriya varṇa); its debilitation at 10° Tulā places it in the sign of balance and relationship, where individual solar assertion is structurally challenged by the requirements of reciprocity and compromise. The Jātaka Pārijāta offers extensive discussion of how the Sun’s debilitation in Libra produces a characteristic diminishment of paternal protection, governmental favor, and personal authority in the areas it governs.
Mythologically, Sūrya is one of the ādityas — the children of Aditi, goddess of boundlessness — and is specifically celebrated in the Ṛgveda as Sūrya Devata, the visible manifestation of the cosmic principle of self-luminous consciousness. The Gāyatrī mantra (Ṛgveda 3.62.10) is addressed to the solar deity Savitṛ, a form of Sūrya associated with creative and illuminating power. In Jyotiṣa’s daily practice, Sunday (Ādityavāra) is Sūrya’s day; sunrise is the natural moment of solar invocation. The Sun’s transit through each rāśi takes approximately one month; its transit through one nakṣatra approximately 13 days.
From a diagnostic and predictive perspective, Sūrya’s strength or weakness in a chart directly reflects the quality of the native’s self-confidence, relationship with authority figures (particularly the father), vitality of constitution, and capacity for genuine leadership. A strong, well-placed Sun gives the native the inner fire to pursue their dharma with consistency; a weakened Sun produces a tendency toward self-doubt, difficulty with authority, compromised vitality, or an identity that requires excessive external validation to feel secure.