Vedic Mythology c5.s4.t2.6

c5.s4.t2.6

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).