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Vedic Mythology c5.s4.t2: § 41. Aditi

Vedic Mythology c5.s4.t2

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§ 41. Aditi

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There is one deity who, if rightly interpreted as the personification of a pure abstraction, like those treated in the preceding paragraph, occupies an anomalous position in the RV. For the name is not limited to the latest portion, but occurs throughout the collection. This would be accounted for by the peculiar manner in which the personification came about, supposing the explanation offered below to be correct. Otherwise this deity would have to be classed with abstractions of the epithet type (§ 39).

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The goddess Aditi is not the subject of any separate hymn, but is often incidentally celebrated in the RV., her name occurring nearly eighty times. Very rarely mentioned alone (8, 19¹⁴), she is constantly invoked with her sons, the Ādityas.

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She has no definite physical features. She is often called a goddess (*devī*), who is sometimes styled *anarvā*, 'intact' (2, 40⁶; 7, 40⁴). She is widely expanded (5, 46⁶), extensive, a mistress of wide stalls (8, 67¹²). She is bright and luminous, a supporter of creatures (1, 136³: otherwise said of Mitra-Varuṇa only), and belongs to all men (7, 10⁴: also said of Heaven and Earth). She is invoked at morning, noon, and sunset (5, 69³)¹.

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Aditi is the mother of Mitra and Varuṇa (8, 25³; 10, 36³. 132⁶) as well as of Aryaman (8, 47⁹). Hence she is called the mother of kings (2, 27⁷, cp. v. ¹), of excellent sons (3, 4¹¹), of powerful sons (8, 56¹¹), of heroic sons (AV. 3, 8³; 11, 1¹¹), or of eight sons (10, 72⁸; AV. 8, 9²¹). She is once said to be the mother of the Rudras, being the daughter of the Vasus and (strange to say) sister of the Ādityas (8, 90¹⁵), and the AV. (6, 4¹) mentions her brothers as well as her sons. In another passage of the AV. (7, 6² = VS. 21, 5) she is invoked as the great mother of the devout, the mistress of *ṛta*, strong in might, undecaying, widely extended, protecting, skilfully guiding. Such passages and the constant invocation of Aditi along with the Ādityas, her sons, show that her motherhood is an essential and characteristic trait. Her epithet *pastyā*, housewife (4, 55³; 8, 27⁵) may possibly also allude to her motherhood. In the Epic and Purāṇic mythology Aditi is the daughter of Dakṣa and mother of the gods in general, and expressly of Vivasvat, the Sun, and of Viṣṇu in his dwarf incarnation. She is said to be the wife of Viṣṇu in VS. (29, 60 = TS. 7, 5¹⁴).

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Aditi is several times spoken of as protecting from distress (*aṃhas*), and she is said to grant complete welfare or safety (10, 100; 1, 94¹⁵), but she is more frequently invoked to release from guilt or sin. Thus Varuṇa (1, 24¹⁵), Agni (4, 12⁴), and Savitṛ (5, 82⁶), are besought to free from guilt against Aditi. Aditi, Mitra, and Varuṇa are implored to forgive sin (2, 27¹⁴), Aditi and Aryaman, to loosen (the bonds of) sin (7, 93⁷). Worshippers beseech Aditi to make them sinless (1, 162²²); praying that by fulfilling her ordinances they may be without sin towards Varuṇa (7, 87⁷) and that evildoers may be cut off from Aditi (10, 87¹⁸). Hence though other gods, Agni (3, 54¹⁰), Savitṛ (4, 54³), Sun, Dawn, Heaven and Earth (10, 35²˙ ³) are petitioned to pardon sin, the notion of releasing from it is much more closely connected with Aditi and her son Varuṇa, whose fetters that bind sinners are characteristic, and who unties sin like a rope and removes it (p. 26).

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This notion is nearly allied to the etymology of the name. The word *aditi* is primarily a noun meaning 'unbinding', 'bondlessness', from *di-ti* 'binding' (= Gk. δέ-σι-ς), derived from the root *dā*, 'to bind'. The past passive participle of this verb is employed to describe Śunaḥśepa 'bound' (*di-tá*) to the stake (5, 2⁷). Hence as a goddess Aditi is naturally invoked to release her worshippers like a tied (*baddha*) thief (8, 67¹⁴). The original unpersonified meaning of 'freedom' seems to survive in a few passages of the RV. Thus a worshipper exclaims, 'who gives us back to great *aditi*, that I may see father and mother'? (1, 24¹). The Ādityas are besought (7, 51¹) to 'place the offering in guiltlessness (*anāgāstve*) and freedom (*adititve*)'. The poet perhaps means the same thing when he prays to Heaven and Earth for 'the secure and unlimited gift of *aditi*' (1, 185³). The word *aditi* also occurs several times in the adjectival sense of 'boundless'. It is thus used as an attribute twice of Dyaus (5, 59⁸; 10, 63³) and more frequently of Agni (1, 94¹⁵; 4, 1²⁰; 7, 9³; 8, 19¹⁴).

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The indefiniteness of the name would easily have lent itself to mystical identifications, and the conception was naturally affected by the theogonic and cosmogonic speculations found in the more recent portions of the RV. Thus the gods are said to have been born from Aditi, the Waters, and Earth (10, 63²; cp. p. 14). In the verse immediately following, the 'boundless' Sky (*dyaur aditi*), their mother, is said to supply the gods with honied milk. Here therefore she appears to be identified with the sky². Elsewhere (1, 72⁹; AV. 13, 1³⁸) Aditi seems to be identified with the Earth, and this identification is frequent in the TS. and ŚB. In the Naighaṇṭuka the name is given as a synonym of earth, and, in the dual, of Heaven and Earth³. In many passages of the RV., however, she is distinguished from Heaven and Earth by being mentioned separately along with them (10, 63¹⁰ &c.)⁴. In another passage (1, 89¹⁰) Aditi represents a personification of Universal Nature: 'Aditi is the sky; Aditi is the air; Aditi is the mother, and father, and son; Aditi is all the gods and the five tribes; Aditi is whatever has been born; Aditi is whatever shall be born' (p. 16; cp. Kaṭha Up. 4, 7).

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Though according to the older mythology of the RV. Aditi is the mother of Dakṣa as an Āditya (2, 27¹), she is in a cosmogonic hymn (10, 72⁴˙ ⁵) said to be his daughter as well as his mother by the reciprocal generation which is a notion not unfamiliar to the RV. (p. 12; cp. 10, 90⁵). In two other hymns of the tenth book (5⁷. 64⁵) these deities are connected in such a way that Aditi can scarcely be the mother of Dakṣa, but seems rather to be subordinate to him. Though Aditi is the mother of some of the leading deities, she plays an inferior part in a few other passages also. Thus she celebrates, along with her sons Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman, the praises of Savitṛ (7, 38⁴) and is said to have produced a hymn for Indra (8, 12¹⁴, cp. 5, 31⁵).

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Probably as the mother of the luminous Ādityas, Aditi is sometimes connected with light. She is asked for light (4, 25³, cp. 10, 36³), her imperishable light is celebrated (7, 82¹⁰), and Dawn is called the face of Aditi (1, 113¹⁹). Occasionally Aditi is referred to in general terms which might apply to other deities. Thus she is implored to protect or bless her worshippers, their children, and their cattle (8, 18⁶. 7; 1, 43²). She is prayed to for wealth (7, 40²), her pure, intact, celestial, imperishable gifts are supplicated (1, 185³), and the large blessings bestowed by the Maruts are compared with the beneficent deeds of Aditi (1, 166¹²).

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In some passages of the RV. (1, 153³; 8, 90¹⁵; 10, 11¹ &c.) as well as in later Vedic texts (VS. 13, 43. 49), Aditi is spoken of as a cow, and, in the ritual, a ceremonial cow is commonly addressed as Aditi⁵. Terrestrial Soma is compared to the milk of Aditi (9, 96¹⁵); and milk only can be meant⁶ by the daughter of Aditi who yields to Soma as he flows to the vat (9, 69³). There may be a similar allusion when priests with their ten fingers are said to purify Soma on the lap of Aditi (9, 26¹. 71⁵).

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A review of the evidence indicates that Aditi has two and only two prominent characteristics. The first is her motherhood. She is the mother of a group of gods whose name represents a metronymic formation from hers. Her second main characteristic, in conformity with the etymological meaning of the name, is her power of releasing from the bonds of physical suffering and moral guilt. Mystical speculation on the name would lead to her being styled a cow, as representing boundless plenty, or to her being identified with the boundless earth, heaven, or universe. But how are we to account for so early a personification of such an abstract idea, and in particular for Aditi becoming the mother of the Ādityas? Bergaigne⁷ thinks the transition to Aditi's motherhood is to be found in such an expression as *dyaur aditiḥ*, the 'boundless sky', the mother who supplies the gods with milk (10, 63³). According to this view, the rare and secondary adjectival meaning 'boundless' would have developed from being an epithet of the sky, otherwise characteristically regarded as a father, into an independent female deity. Nor does this explanation seem to account satisfactorily for the conception of Aditi releasing from bondage. Another explanation is possible. The expression *aditeḥ putrāḥ*, sons of Aditi, several times applied to the Ādityas in the RV., may in the pre-Vedic period have simply meant 'sons of freedom' (like *sahasaḥ putraḥ*, 'son of strength': p. 12) as describing a prominent quality of Varuṇa and cognate gods. Such an expression would easily lead to the personification of Aditi as a mother. Similarly Śavasī was evolved as a name of Indra's mother in the RV. itself from his epithet 'Son of Might' (*śavasaḥ*: p. 12) and Indra's epithet *śacīpati*, 'lord of might', later led to *śacī* being personified as the wife of that god, the compound being interpreted as 'husband of Śacī'. The formation of a metronymic Āditya, son of Aditi, would tend to the limitation of the group comprising her sons. The deified personification would naturally retain a connexion with the original meaning of existence free from all fetters, but would assume a few additional fluctuating attributes, such as brightness, from the Ādityas. As mother of some of the leading gods or of the gods in general, she might occasionally be identified with Heaven and Earth, the universal parents, and the meaning of the word would encourage cosmogonic speculations. Thus Aditi, an entirely Indian goddess, is historically younger than some at least of her sons.

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³ According to BRV. 3, 90, Aditi in 4, 55^1^b = 7, 62^4 a is synonymous with dyāvāpṛthivī. —

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⁷ BRV. 3, 90. —

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The opinion that Aditi is a personification of the idea of ‘freedom from bondage’ is favoured by Wallis⁸ and Oldenberg⁹. Max Müller¹⁰ thinks that Aditi, an ancient god or goddess, is the earliest name invented to express the infinite as visible to the naked eye, the endless expanse beyond the earth, the clouds, and the sky. Roth at first¹¹ interpreted Aditi to mean ‘inviolability, imperishableness’, denoting as a personification the goddess of eternity. Later he explained her as ‘eternity’, the principle which sustains the Ādityas, or imperishable celestial light¹². He regards her not as a definite but only an incipient personification. In the St. Petersburg Dictionary, however, he explains Aditi as a personification of the boundlessness of heaven as opposed to the finite earth. Pischel, on the other hand believes Aditi represents the earth¹³. This is also Hardy’s opinion¹⁴. Colinet considers Aditi the female counterpart of Dyaus¹⁵. The Naighaṇṭuka gives *aditi* as a synonym of *pṛthivī* (earth), *vāc* (speech), *go* (cow), and, in the dual, of *dyāvāpṛthivī* (heaven and earth). Yāska defines Aditi as ‘the mighty mother of the gods’, and following the Naighaṇṭuka (5, 5) locates her in the atmospheric region, while the Ādityas are assigned to the celestial, and Varuṇa to both¹⁶.

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¹ OST. 5, 36, note 68. —

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² Op. cit. 5, 39, note 73. —

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⁴ References in OST. 5, 40 f. —

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⁵ ORV. 206 cp. 72. —

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⁶ Otherwise BRV. 3, 94. —

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⁸ WC. 45 f. —

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⁹ ORV. 204—7 cp. SBE. 46, 329. —

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¹⁰ Vedic Hymns, SBE. 32, 241; cp. LSL. 2, 619; Hopkins, JAOS. 17, 91. —

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¹¹ Nirukta, Erl. 150—1. —

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¹² ZDMG. 6, 68 f.; so also KRV. 59, Hillebrandt, Aditi p. 20. —

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¹³ PVS. 2, 86. —

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¹⁴ HVBP. 94. —

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¹⁵ Trans. of the 9th Or. Congress 1, 396—410. —

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¹⁶ Roth on Nir. 10, 4. Benfey, Hymnen des Sāmaveda 218 (= Unteilbarkeit); OST. 1, 26; 5, 35—53. 55; BRV. 3, 88—98; Hillebrandt, Ueber die Göttin Aditi, Breslau 1876; BRI. 19; Darmesteter, Ormazd p. 82; Colinet, Etude sur le mot Aditi, Museon 12, 81—90; Roth, IS. 14, 392—3; Bloomfield, ZDMG. 48, 552, note 1; HRI. 72—3.

Cites (8)