He is celebrated in eleven whole hymns of the Rig Veda and in parts of many others texts, with his name being mentioned about 170 times in aggregate.. Savitr disappeared as an independent deity from the Hindu pantheon after the end of the Vedic period, but is still worshiped in modern Hinduism and is referred to as Sāvitrī.
His channel is analogized as a resplendent chariot drawn by two radiant steeds or by two or more bronze, white-footed stallions.
The class, judged by the evolution of the mythological creations of the Veda, does not represent direct abstractions, but appears in each case to be derived from an epithet applied to one or more deities, illustrating a particular aspect of activity or character.
Thus Rohita, the 'Red One' (whose female form is Rohinī), originally an epithet of the sun, as a separate deity in the capacity of a Creator.
In all the cases which are to be found in the Vedic literature we are able to say with a fair degree of plausibility that the conception formed itself from the use of the epithet in question, in the first place, of some concrete god; ... after denoting that deity in the special field of action, it was gradually made into a separate deity, concerned merely with the sphere of action in question.
"[9]According to Yaska, Sanskrit scholar of the 5th century BCE, who made various attempts to interpret difficult Vedic mythologies in his work Nirukta (Etymology) (12, 12), the time of Savitr’s appearance is when darkness has been removed.
He unyokes his steeds, brings the wanderer to rest; at his command night comes; the weaver rolls up her web and the skilful man lays down his unfinished work.
No being, not even Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Rudra, can resist his will and independent dominion.
It is at least possible, therefore, that in its origin Savitr was not an independent creation, but was an epithet of Surya, but that question is of little importance: The essential feature of the god is not his original basis, but his function as the inspirer or impeller to holy sacrifice: The ritual act is repeatedly said in the Yajur Veda to be done ‘on the instigation of the god Savitr’.
The Vedic poet observes: "[G]od Savitr has raised aloft his brilliance, making light for the whole world; Surya shining brightly has filled heaven and earth and air with his rays.
The relevant hymn mentions that: "Indra measured six broad spaces, from which no existing thing is excluded: He it is who made the wide expanse of earth and the lofty dome of the sky, even he."
Various passages show that in the cosmological speculation of the Rig Veda The sun was regarded as an important agent of generation.
Statements such as that he is called by many names though one indicate that his nature was being tentatively abstracted to that of a supreme god, nearly approaching that of the later conception of Brahma.
In this sense the sun is once glorified as a great power of the universe under the name of the golden embryo, hiranya-garbha, in Rig Veda.
In the last verse of this hymn, he is called Prajapati, lord of created beings , the name which became that of the chief god of the Brahmanas.
It is significant that in the only older passage of the Rig veda in which it occurs, Prajapati is an epithet of the solar deity Savitr, who in the same hymn is said to rule over what moves and stands.
[20] Once the senses are controlled and the mind is stabilized through slaying of all the dark powers, comes the awakening, the goddess Ushas, who brings along with her Ashvins into the world of inner consciousness.
[citation needed] In the Dark-Hunter fantasy series by author Sherrilyn Kenyon, Savitar is a Chthonian god killer who is thousands of years old and was responsible for policing the Atlantean pantheon.
[citation needed] For the second and all subsequent seasons of the television series Battlestar Galactica, Richard Gibbs composed new opening music whose words come from the Sāvitrī Mantra.
[22] A literal translation of the verse can be given as: "May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the god: so may he stimulate our prayers.