1 ItihƗsa of Mitrotsavam, UttarƗyaṇa day, samrƗjƗ 'sovereign' MitrƗ-Varuṇau from Vedic times Adoration of Aryaman divinity, Indra mahotsavam and Mitrotsavam are celebrations of cosmic sovereignty, samrƗjyam. Worship of sun on UttarƗyaṇa, the winter solstice day is Mitra Utsavam. On this day, the Sun starts on its course towards the northern hemisphere. Six months of UttarƗyaṇa are a single day of the divinities. "The Surya Siddhanta defines UttarƗyaṇa or Uttarayan as the period between the Makara Sankranti (which currently occurs around January 14) and Karka Sankranti (which currently occurs around July 16). The term Uttarayana is derived from two different Sanskrit words "uttara" (North) and "ayana" (movement) thus indicating a semantic of the northward movement of the Earth on the celestial sphere. This movement begins to occur a day after the winter solstice in December which occurs around 22 December and continues for a six-month period through to the summer solstice around June 21 (dates vary ). This difference is because the solstices are continually precessing at a rate of 50 arcseconds / year due to the precession of the equinoxes, i.e. this difference is the difference between the sidereal and tropical zodiacs. The Surya Siddhanta bridges this difference by juxtaposing the four solstitial and equinotial points with four of the twelve boundaries of the rashis." (Burgess, Ebenezer (1858). The Surya Siddhantha - A Textbook of Hindu Astronomy. American Oriental Society. Chapter 14, Verse 7-9.)”...tradition of the Kumbha Mela is connected with the entry of Jupiter into Kumbha Rasi, or Aquarius – a tradition that originates from the time of the winter solstice was in that constellation, roughly around 3000 BCE., very much in the Indus period. Let us take a closer look at this aspect. Kumbha Mela, according to legend, commemorates the battle between the devas and the asuras or the churning of the ocean (samudra manthana) for the nectar of immortality or amrta. Such an encounter takes place at the end of a yuga and at the beginning of a new yuga, which again takes place in the winter solstice. In this instance, as the nectar came out in a pot (kumbha) – the pot of Aquarius the Water Bearer – it was whisked away by the gods and drops fell (or the pot was placed) at Haridwar, Ujjain, Prayag (Allahabad) and Nasik. The Kumbha festival itelf is still celebrated every twelve years when the planet Jupiter enters the constellation Kumbha, or Aquarius. Indeed the winter solstie was in Kumha Rasi.” (B. G. Sidharth , 1999, The Celestial