[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879) › c5.18 # A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.18 A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.18 - **Language:** English ### [c5.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.18) ĀDITYA. In the early Vedic times the Ādityas were six, or more frequently seven, celestial deities, of whom Varuna was chief, consequently he was the Āditya. They were sons of Aditi, who had eight sons, but she approached the gods with seven, having cast away the eighth, Mārttānda (the sun). In after-times the number was increased to twelve, as representing the sun in the twelve months of the year. Āditya is one of the names of the sun. Dr. Muir quotes the following from Professor Roth :—" There (in the highest heaven) dwell and reign those gods who bear in common the name of Ādityas. We must, however, if we would discover their earliest character, abandon the conceptions which in a later age, and even in that of the heroic poems, were entertained regarding these deities. According to this conception they were twelve sun-gods, bearing evident reference to the twelve months. But for the most ancient period we must hold fast the primary signification of their name. They are the inviolable, imperishable, eternal beings. Aditi, eternity, or the eternal, is the element which sustains or is sustained by them. . . . The eternal and inviolable element in which the Ādityas dwell, and which forms their essence, is the celestial light. The Ādityas, the gods of this light, do not therefore by any means coincide with any of the forms in which light is manifested in the universe. They are neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, nor dawn, but the eternal sustainers of this luminous life, which exists, as it were, behind all these phenomena." - [Previous: c5.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.17) - [Next: c5.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.19) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5) ## Linked texts (1) - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.18) · Pramāṇa