Kankalitila, Mathura: Surya wearing northern dress, about 1st Century A.D.

Among the Brahmanical images in Mathuran art, those of the solar deities seem to show the greatest amount of borrowed elements from foreign lands, The worship of the sun-god, Surya, was first introduced under the cult of Mitra, popular in Iranian religion, which entered India with the Kushans who were from the area of Iran originally, Iconographically, Surya appears in several forms, but perhaps that which most closely reflects the image the Kushans had of themselves is that of Surya dressed as an emperor in northern styles wearing a turban, coat fastened with a belt, occasionally trousers, and boots, In his right hand he holds a flower, in his left a broad-bladed dagger, Gradually, the dagger was replaced by a lotus, and thereafter this type of symbolism in conjunction with Surya remained the standard type from the Gupta Period onward, -- Mathura, Curzon Museum