The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s2.22

v1.c16.s2.22

The Ādityas form a somewhat indefinite group of gods: in the Rigveda they are accorded six whole hymns and portions of two others. The original number is slightly uncertain; once⁷ only in the Rigveda is it given as seven, and once¹ also as eight, but in that passage the priority of seven is clearly shown by the fact that it is stated that Aditi, their mother, at first presented only seven to the gods, and the eighth, Mārtāṇḍa, 'sprung of a dead egg,' came afterwards. The number seven is also found observed in the ritual of the Yajurveda² at a time when unquestionably the number twelve was normally accepted for the Ādityas. But the Rigveda at no time enumerates more than six and that once only, when the list is Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Varuṇa, Dakṣa, and Aṁça. Sūrya, however, is an Āditya in the Rigveda, and he may be taken to make up the seven, with Mārtāṇḍa as the setting sun as the eighth. The Atharvaveda³ gives Aditi eight sons and the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa⁴ gives their names as Mitra, Varuṇa, Aryaman, Aṁça, Bhaga, Dhātṛ, Indra and Vivasvant. The term Āditya is, however, applied to Indra, once in connexion with Varuṇa and once as the fourth Āditya. The Āditya *par excellence*, however, is Varuṇa, next comes Mitra, and next Aryaman. In the Brāhmaṇas the number of the Ādityas is normally fixed at twelve, and they are identified with the twelve months. This explanation of their number is much more natural and plausible than the view of Oldenberg⁵ that the number is borrowed from the Jagatī metre which is associated with the Ādityas. In the Maitrāyaṇī Saṁhitā⁶ we find Indra distinguished expressly from the group of twelve. More generally, however, all the gods seem not rarely to be styled Ādityas, as is natural enough since the only real characteristic the group can be said to possess is that they are the gods of the light of the heaven.