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Vedic Mythology c5.s4.t3: § 42. Diti

Vedic Mythology c5.s4.t3

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§ 42. Diti

c5.s4.t3.1

The name of Diti occurs only three times in the RV., twice along with that of Aditi. Mitra and Varuṇa are said to behold from their car Aditi and Diti (5, 62^8). Sāyaṇa here explains the two as the indivisible earth and the separate creatures on it, Roth¹, as ‘the eternal and the perishable’, and Muir² as ‘the entire aggregate of visible nature’. In a second passage (4, 2^11), Agni is besought to grant *diti* and preserve from *aditi*. Here Sāyaṇa interprets the two words as ‘liberal giver’ and ‘illiberal giver’, Roth as ‘wealth’ and ‘penury’. Bergaigne³ takes the words to designate the goddesses of the previous passage; but it is more likely that they are here quite different words, derived from *dā*, ‘to give’, and thus meaning ‘giving’ and ‘non-giving’. This view seems to be favoured by both the context and the order in which the words occur. In the third passage (7, 15^12) Diti is mentioned without Aditi, but along with Agni, Savitṛ, and Bhaga, being said to give (*dā*) what is desirable (*vāryam*). Diti is named along with Aditi as a goddess in the later Saṃhitās also (VS. 18, 22; AV. 15, 18^4; 16, 6^7). Her sons are mentioned in AV. 7, 7^1. These are the Daityas, who in post-Vedic mythology are the enemies of the gods. The name of Diti as a goddess seems to be merely an antithesis to that of Aditi⁴, formed from the latter to express a positive sense, as *sura*, ‘god’, was later (by false etymology) evolved from *asura*, ‘demon’.

c5.s4.t3.2

¹ ZDMG. 6, 71. —

c5.s4.t3.3

² OST. 5, 42. —

c5.s4.t3.4

³ BRV. 3, 97. —

c5.s4.t3.5

⁴ MM., SBE. 32, 256; cp. WC. 46.

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