Surya

Surya is the Sun, the first of the nine grahas, a word that here means the planets and the two lunar nodes. Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka gives Heli as another name and calls the Sun the soul of the Kalapurusha, the zodiac pictured as a human body. In the book's court of planets the Sun is a king, as the Moon is. Iyer's note adds that the Indian order of the planets follows the days of the week, which puts the Sun first.

The book describes the Sun as red and dark brown, with somewhat yellow eyes. It links the Sun with fire, copper, the east and a pungent flavor, and it ties the summer months of May and June to the Sun and Mars. Its temper is listed as satwa, the first of three qualities that the book hands out to the planets.

As for dignity, which means how well a planet sits in a sign, Simha is the Sun's own sign, and Aries is its exaltation, at the tenth degree. Libra holds the Sun's fall at the same degree, and the book names Leo as the mulatrikona, a further strong placement. The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra as typed on Wikisource, edition unidentified, adds that the first 20 degrees of Leo are the mulatrikona and the rest own sign, where the Brihat Jataka gives the sign only. The quoted friendship table is the one Varahamihira adopts from Satyacharya, and a rival list that he cites for unnamed others makes Jupiter the Sun's only friend.

A planet in the Brihat Jataka looks at houses, a feature called drishti, or aspect. Every planet sees the seventh house fully, and the Sun has no special aspect beyond that. The same book makes the Sun strongest in the south or the tenth sign, and gives it motional strength in the six signs that start at Makara. In the Vimshottari scheme, a 120-year timetable of periods, the Sun's period lasts 6 years and belongs to the nakshatras Krittika, Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Ashadha.