Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c9.72

c9.72

¹ Max Müller thus comments on this hymn: "*Aditi*, an ancient god or goddess, is in reality the earliest name invented to express the Infinite; not the Infinite as the result of a long process of abstract reasoning, but the visible Infinite, visible by the naked eye, the endless expanse, beyond the earth, beyond the clouds, beyond the sky" [*Rv.*, Translation, i, 230]. Yāska, in his *Nirukta*, describes *Aditi* as the mother of gods [iv, 22]. *Aditi* is contrasted with *Diti* in Rigveda, v, 62, 8, where Sāyaṇa explains *Aditi* as representing the Earth as an invisible whole (*akhaṇḍanīyām bhūmim*) and *Diti* the separate creatures (*khaṇḍitām prajādikām*). His supreme position as deliverer from sin is indicated in several other passages [i, 162, 22; ii, 24, 14; iv, 12, 4; v, 82, 6; vii, 87, 7; 93, 7; x, 12, 8].