The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c20.s6.26

v1.c20.s6.26

An interesting suggestion of the origin of Aditi is due to Macdonell,⁴ and on the whole it has more to say for it than any other explanation of the deity. The Ādityas are here and there called sons of Aditi, and he suggests that, just as Çavasī is found in the Rigveda itself as the name of Indra’s mother, arising from the phrase ‘son of strength (*çavas*)’, applied to Indra as the most strong one, so Aditi was conjured up from a phrase meaning sons of freedom or rather perhaps guiltlessness. The personification would then by a most natural and simple process be invested with the leading characteristics of her sons, as the mother of the Ādityas she would be brought into conjunction with heaven and earth, the universal parents, while she would retain her special connexion with the idea of freedom. In that case Āditya would be a term produced and applied to Mitra, Varuṇa, and the other gods after Aditi had been created, and the original gods, who were called sons of freedom or guiltlessness, would probably be Mitra and Varuṇa, and perhaps some others. It must be assumed that these others had already been formed into a close group before the separation of the Indo-Iranian stems as the connexion of the group of Ādityas with the Ameša Spentas is obviously probable if it cannot be proved, but there is no objection to this view to be raised on the ground of the theory of Aditi here accepted, since it is clear in any case that the name Āditya is an invention of India.