Aditi in Rigveda

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Aditi

Aditi is a major Vedic goddess best known as the mother of the Ādityas and, more broadly, as a cosmic mother associated with boundlessness, protection, and the loosening of bonds. Though she has no hymn exclusively dedicated to her in the Ṛgveda, her name occurs nearly eighty times and she is frequently invoked together with her sons, the Ādityas.

Identity in the Ṛgveda

  • Aditi is only rarely mentioned alone in the hymns.[1]
  • She is consistently invoked alongside the Ādityas (e.g., Mitra, Varuṇa, Aryaman), reflecting her defining role as their mother.[9][10]

Epithets and attributes

  • devī, sometimes expressly styled anarvā “intact.”[2][3]
  • “Widely expanded,” “extensive,” “mistress of wide stalls.”[4][5]
  • “Bright and luminous,” “supporter of creatures.”[6]
  • Invoked at morning, noon, and sunset.[8]

These traits emphasize her luminous, expansive character and her general beneficence toward all beings.

Family relations

  • Mother of Mitra and Varuṇa,[9] and of Aryaman.[10]
  • Called “mother of kings,” “of powerful sons,” and even “mother of eight sons.”[11][13][14]
  • Once, paradoxically, said to be mother of the Rudras and sister of the Ādityas.[15]
  • Her epithet pastyā (“housewife”) possibly alludes to her motherhood and domestic guardianship.[16][17]

These passages show that “motherhood” is an essential and characteristic trait of Aditi.

Functions and worship

  • Protector from distress (aṃhas), granter of safety and welfare; often invoked for general well-being, children, cattle, and wealth.[22][23][24][25][26]
  • Particularly connected with release from guilt or sin; this theme recurs where other deities (e.g., Varuṇa) are invoked in relation to Aditi’s liberating power.[40]

Associations with light and with the cow

  • Aditi is asked for light; her imperishable light is praised, and Dawn (Uṣas) is called “the face of Aditi.”[18][20][21]
  • She is sometimes spoken of as a cow; terrestrial Soma is compared to her milk; Soma is purified “on the lap of Aditi,” and the “daughter of Aditi” yields to Soma as he flows to the vats.[27][29][31][32][30]

These images link Aditi with nurturing luminosity and with the nourishing, purifying symbolism of Soma.

Cosmic identifications

The name Aditi lends itself to expansive identifications in late–Ṛgvedic speculation. She can be equated with Universal Nature—“Aditi is the sky; Aditi is the air; Aditi is the mother, father, and son… whatever has been born and shall be born.”[33] She is elsewhere identified with Earth,[37] and in cosmogonic contexts the gods are said to be born from Aditi, the Waters, and Earth;[38] yet she can also be mentioned separately beside Heaven and Earth, preserving her distinctness.[39]

These varying identifications reflect a late Vedic tendency toward abstraction, without erasing Aditi’s independent personality.

Dakṣa and reciprocal generation

According to older Ṛgvedic mythology Aditi is mother of Dakṣa as an Āditya,[34] while a cosmogonic hymn paradoxically makes her both daughter and mother of Dakṣa—a reciprocal generation motif.[35][36]

Later Vedic and Purāṇic notices

Later texts (e.g., VS, TS, AV) call Aditi the great mother, mistress of ṛta, and identify her as wife of Viṣṇu and mother of Vivasvat and of Viṣṇu in his dwarf incarnation (Vāmana).

Scholarly interpretations (summary)

Nineteenth-century scholars proposed influential readings: Aditi as “freedom from bondage” (aditi as “unbound”), as “the infinite” or “boundlessness of heaven,” or even as Earth or the female counterpart of Dyaus. A philological pathway is suggested whereby the expression “sons of Aditi” may originally have meant “sons of freedom,” which then became personified as a mother of the Ādityas; in this view, her two most salient traits in the hymns are (1) motherhood and (2) releasing from guilt/bondage.

References (Ṛgveda)

  1. RV 8.19.4. ↩︎
  2. RV 2.40.6. ↩︎
  3. RV 7.40.4. ↩︎
  4. RV 5.46.6. ↩︎
  5. RV 8.67.12. ↩︎
  6. RV 1.136.3. ↩︎
  7. RV 5.69.3. ↩︎
  8. RV 8.25.3. ↩︎
  9. RV 8.47.9. ↩︎
  10. RV 2.27.7. ↩︎
  11. RV 8.56.11. ↩︎
  12. RV 10.72.8. ↩︎
  13. RV 8.90.15. ↩︎
  14. RV 4.55.3. ↩︎
  15. RV 8.27.5. ↩︎
  16. RV 4.25.3. ↩︎
  17. RV 7.82.10. ↩︎
  18. RV 1.113.19. ↩︎
  19. RV 8.186.7. ↩︎
  20. RV 1.43.2. ↩︎
  21. RV 7.40.2. ↩︎
  22. RV 1.185.3. ↩︎
  23. RV 1.166.12. ↩︎
  24. RV 1.153.3. ↩︎
  25. RV 9.96.15. ↩︎
  26. RV 9.69.3. ↩︎
  27. RV 9.26.1. ↩︎
  28. RV 9.7.15. ↩︎
  29. RV 1.89.10. ↩︎
  30. RV 2.27.1. ↩︎
  31. RV 10.72.4. ↩︎
  32. RV 10.72.5. ↩︎
  33. RV 1.7.29. ↩︎
  34. RV 10.63.2. ↩︎
  35. RV 10.63.10. ↩︎
  36. RV 1.24.15. ↩︎

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