The paper discusses aspects of the iconographical development and the possible reasons for the depiction of the sun god in North India in Buddhist as well as Brahmanical contexts prior to the third and fourth centuries. It demonstrates that by employing careful art historical analysis of the images themselves and, whenever possible, their position in the larger context of a pictorial program, these images can be valuable resources in their own right for a deeper understanding of the notions connected to and transmitted by these images-particularly if neither inscriptions nor other literary sources are directly related to them.
Keywords: Indian sun god; light symbolism; spread of image types.