The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c20.s6.1

v1.c20.s6.1

The place of Aditi in the Vedic pantheon is very remarkable, if, as is on the whole most probable, she is to be regarded as an abstract deity. She has, indeed, no entire hymn in the Rigveda, but she is mentioned not less than eighty times, and in the great majority of these with her sons, the Ādityas. Of her personality little is said beyond the fact that she is intact, extended, bright, and luminous, a supporter of creatures, an epithet enjoyed by Mitra and Varuṇa, and belonging to all men. She is invoked at morning, noon, and evening. While the Ādityas are normally her sons, she is once said to be their sister, and to be the daughter of the Vasus.⁶ She appears in the Yajurveda⁷ once as the wife of Viṣṇu: in the post-Vedic mythology she is especially the daughter of Dakṣa and the mother of Vivasvant, and of Viṣṇu, but also of all the gods.