Editing Solar deity (section)

=== <span class="anchor" id="Theory"></span><!-- [[Solar theory]] redirects here-->Solar myth ===
{{See also|Solar myths}}

Three theories exercised great influence on nineteenth and early twentieth century mythography. The theories were the "solar mythology" of [[Alvin Boyd Kuhn]] and [[Max Müller]], the [[tree worship]] of [[Wilhelm Mannhardt|Mannhardt]], and the [[totemism]] of [[J. F. McLennan]].<ref name="Ridgeway-1915">{{cite web |url=http://www.theatrehistory.com/origins/ridgeway003.html |title=Solar Myths, Tree Spirits, and Totems, The Dramas and Dramatic Dances of Non-European Races |first=William |last=Ridgeway |date=1915 |pages=11–19 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |access-date=19 March 2015}}</ref>

Müller's "solar mythology" was born from the study of [[Indo-European languages]]. Of them, Müller believed Archaic [[Sanskrit]] was the closest to the language spoken by the [[Aryan]]s. Using the Sanskrit names for deities as a base, he applied [[Grimm's law]] to names for similar deities from different Indo-European groups to compare their [[Etymology|etymological]] relationships to one another. In the comparison, Müller saw the similarities between the names and used these etymological similarities to explain the similarities between their roles as deities. Through the study, Müller concluded that the Sun having many different names led to the creation of multiple solar deities and their mythologies that were passed down from one group to another.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carrol |first1=Michael P. |title=Some third thoughts on Max Müller and solar mythology |journal=European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie / Europäisches Archiv für Soziologie |date=1985 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=263–281 |jstor=23997047 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23997047 |access-date=2 October 2021}}</ref>

[[R. F. Littledale]] criticized the Sun myth theory, pointing out that by his own principles, Max Müller was himself only a solar myth. [[Alfred Comyn Lyall|Alfred Lyall]] delivered another attack on the same theory's assumption that tribal gods and heroes, such as those of [[Homer]], were only reflections of the Sun myth by proving that the gods of certain [[Rajput clans]] were actual warriors who founded the clans a few centuries ago, and were the ancestors of the present chieftains.<ref name="Ridgeway-1915" />