Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.48

c4.48

3. Aditi in prison. Devakī is Aditi reborn. There was reason for Devakī being imprisoned on the orders of Kaṃsa. When Kaśyapa was living in an Āśrama with Aditi and Diti he was so much pleased with the services of Aditi that he asked her to beg for any boon she wished. Accordingly she prayed for an ideal son. The boon was readily granted, and Indra was the son thus born to her. The birth of Indra engendered jealousy in Diti towards Aditi, and she also demanded a son equal to Indra. Kaśyapa obliged Diti also. As Diti advanced in pregnancy and her beauty also increased Aditi got jealous of the former and she called her son Indra and told him that unless something was done in time, Diti would deliver a child equal to him (Indra) thus relegating him probably to the place of second Deva. Thus admonished by his mother the artful Indra approached Diti and told her: "Mother, I have come to serve you". Diti was greatly pleased. Indra's services drove Diti to sleep very quickly, and Indra used the opportunity to enter the womb of Diti and cut into 49 pieces the child with his weapon, the Vajra. The child in the womb began crying on receiving cuts with Vajra when Indra asked it not to cry. (Mā ruda, don't cry) and so the child got out of Diti's womb as 49 Mārutas (winds). Then did Diti wake up and cursed Aditi as follows : "Your son did treacherously kill my offspring in the womb itself. So he will forfeit the three worlds. You were responsible for the murder of my child. You will, therefore, have to spend days in prison grieving over your children. Your children also will be annihilated". Because of this curse of Diti, Indra once lost Devaloka and had to live elsewhere, and Nahuṣa functioned, for a time as Indra. (See Nahuṣa). In the 28th Dvāpara yuga Aditi transformed as Devakī had to be a captive of Kaṁsa, and Kaṁsa killed her children by dashing them on the ground. (Devibhāgavata, Skandha 4).