Aditi

“ This vague and floating term was well suited to convey the pantheistic ideas natural to the Indian mind, and already notable in the Vedic hymns. "Aditi," cries a poet, "is heaven; Aditi is air; Aditi is the father, the mother, and the son; Aditi is all the gods; Aditi is that which is born and which awaits the birth." [27] Nothing can be more advanced and metaphysical, nothing farther from what is probably the early character of human thought. Meanwhile, though Aditi is a personage so floating and nebulous, she figures in fairly definite form in a certain myth. ”

“ No one has ever said anything truer.”
From the depths of the eastern sky Aditi arises each morning. To the eyes of the ancient seers the dawn seemed to open the gates of another world into which they begged to enter—into the abode of the gods. We can understand that as the sun and all the solar deities rise from the east, Aditi was said to be the mother of Mitra, Vishnu, Savitar, and Varuna. ”

“ For well these Sons of Aditi know to keep enmities aloof, Unrivalled, giving ample room, they save from woe. 6. Aditi guard our herd by day, Aditi, free from guile, by night, Aditi, ever strengthening, save us from grief! 7. And in the day our hymn is this: May Aditi come nigh to help, With loving-kindness bring us weal and chase our foes. 8. And may the Asvins, the divine Pair of Physicians, send us health: May they remove iniquity and chase our foes. 9. May Agni bless us with his fires, and Surya warm us pleasantly: May the pure Wind breathe sweet on us, and chase our foes. ”

“ The daughters of Daksha are, O tiger among men and prince of the Bharata race, Aditi, Diti, Danu, Kala, Danayu, Sinhika, Krodha, Pradha, Viswa, Vinata, Kapila, Muni, and Kadru. The sons and grandsons of these, gifted with great energy, are countless. From Aditi have sprung the twelve Adityas who are the lords of the universe. And, O Bharata, as they are according to their names, I shall recount them to thee. They are Dhatri, Mitra, Aryaman, Sakra, Varuna, Ansa, Vaga, Vivaswat, Usha, Savitri, Tvashtri, and Vishnu. The youngest, however, is superior to them all in merit. ”

“ Again, the gods were represented in the children of Aditi, and this might be taken either in a high and refined sense, as if Aditi were the infinite region from which the solar deities rise, [10] or we may hold that Aditi is the eternal which sustains and is sustained by the gods, [11] or the Indian imagination could sink to the vulgar and half-magical conception of Aditi as a female who, being desirous of sons, cooked a Brahmaudana oblation for the gods, the Sadhyas. [12] Various other gods and supernatural beings are credited with having created or generated the gods. ”

“ These are only faint figures in comparison with Aditi, if that deity is to be reckoned among the personifications of abstract concepts. She is singularly without definitive features of a physical kind, though, in contrast to the other abstractions, she is commonly known throughout the Ṛgveda. She is expanded, bright, and luminous; she is a mistress of a bright stall and a supporter of creatures; and she belongs to all men. ”

“ We find in the Vishnu Purana, that Devaki (the virgin mother of the Hindoo Saviour Crishna, whose history, as we have seen, corresponds in most every particular with that of Christ Jesus) is called Aditi, [475:4] which, in the Rig-Veda, is the name for the Dawn. Thus we see the legend is complete. Devaki is Aditi, Aditi is the Dawn, and the Dawn is the Virgin Mother. "The Saviour of Mankind" who is born of her is the Sun, the Sun is Crishna, and Crishna is Christ. ”

“ Whate'er God Savitar this day produces, may we be where the Wealthy One distributes. 2. This, dealt from heaven ' may both the Worlds vouchsafe us, and Varuna, Indra, Aryaman, and Mitra. May Goddess Aditi assign us riches, Vayu and Bhaga make them ours for ever. 3. Strong be the man and full of power, O Maruts, whom ye, borne on by spotted coursers, favour. Him, too, Sarasvati and Agni further, and there is none to rob him of his riches. 4. This Varuna is guide of Law, he, Mitra, and Aryaman, the Kings, our work have finished. Divine and foeless Aditi quickly listens. ”

“ Invincible like Sakra himself he will spread thy fame far and wide. As Vishnu (the youngest of Aditi's sons) had enhanced Aditi's joy, so shall this child enhance thy joy. Subjugating the Madras, the Kurus along with the Somakas, and the people of Chedi, Kasi and Karusha, he will maintain the prosperity of the Kurus. (Surfeited with libations at the sacrifice of king Swetaketu) , Agni will derive great gratification from the fat of all creatures dwelling in the Khandava woods (to be burnt down) by the might of this one's arms. ”

“ Beholding the great goddess Aditi thus undergoing the severest austerities, the daughter of Daksha, viz., the illustrious Surabhi, herself devoted to righteousness, similarly underwent very severe austerities upon the breast of the delightful mountains of Kailasa that are resorted to by both the deities and the Gandharvas. Established on the highest Yoga she also stood upon one leg for eleven thousand years. The deities with the Rishis and the great Nagas all became scorched with the severity of her penances. ”

“ Pure, faithful, very strong, with heroes round him, he dwells beside the waters rich with pasture. None slays, from near at hand or from a distance, him who is under the Adityas' guidance. 14. Aditi, Mitra, Varuna, forgive us however we have erred and sinned against you. May I obtain the broad light free from peril: O Indra, let not during darkness seize us. 15. For him the Twain united pour their fulness, the rain from heaven: he thrives most highly favoured. He goes to war mastering both the mansions: to him both portions of the world are gracious. ”

“ Thus Aditi, a goddess of Indian origin, is historically younger than some at least of her sons, who can be traced back to a pre-Indian age.
Goddesses, as a whole, occupy a very subordinate position in Vedic belief. They play hardly any part as rulers of the world. The only one of any consequence is Ushas. The next in importance, Sarasvatī, ranks only with the least prominent of the male gods. One of the few, besides Pṛithivī, to whom an entire hymn is addressed, is Rātrī, Night. Like her sister Dawn, with whom she is often coupled, she is addressed as a daughter of the sky. ”

“ But, again, the Sun is death, and Agni is head of all the gods. Moreover, the Sun is now Indra; the Manes are the seasons, and Varuna, too, is the seasons, as being the year (Çat. Br. iv. 5. 4. 1; i. 6. 4. 18; iv. 4. 5. 18) . Aditi, as we have said, is the Earth; the fee for an offering to her is a cow. Why? Because Earth is a cow and Aditi is Earth; Earth is a mother and a cow is a mother. Hence the fee is a cow. [31]
The tales of the gods, for the most part, are foolish. But they show well what conception the priests had of their divinities. ”

“ Formerly in the Krita age, O Rāma, Diti's highly powerful sons, as well as those of Aditi, possessed of prowess, and virtuous and pious— high-souled ones both—O foremost of men, fell to reflecting,—'How can we become exempt from decrepitude and disease, and immortal.' And as they reflected, it struck them,—'By churning the ocean of milk, we must obtain ambrosia.' Then deciding upon churning (the ocean) , those ones of immeasurable energy making Vāsuki the cord, and the Mandara (hill) , the stick, began to churn the deep. ”

“ Occasionally we even find shadowed forth the pantheistic idea of a deity representing not only all the gods, but Nature as well. Thus the goddess Aditi is identified with all the deities, with men, with all that has been and shall be born, with air, and heaven (i. 89) ; and in a cosmogonic hymn (x. 121) the Creator is not only described as the one god above all gods, but is said [1] to embrace all things. This germ of pantheism developed through the later Vedic literature till it assumed its final shape in the Vedānta philosophy, still the most popular system of the Hindus. ”

“ A corresponding Aryan root dī̆ is presupposed by Sanscrit a-diti, ‘unlimited in time and space, unending, endless’ (the name of the goddess Aditi) . Other Teutonic derivatives of the same root are Zeile and Ziel, which also point to the ‘limitless in time or space’. ”

“ Do thou now, O thou of the six attributes, ascend from hence!" And accordingly Vishnu of mighty energy took his birth in Aditi. And assuming the form of a dwarf, he presented himself before Virochana's son. ”

“ These and other traditions especially those of Ribhus and Vrishakapi strengthen the hypothesis of the traditional year-beginning on the Phalguni full moon. With the Phalguni full moon at the winter solstice, the Vernal equinox was in Mrigashiras; so with the Chitra full moon at the solstice, the Vernal equinox would be in Punarvasu. The presiding deity of Punarvasu is Aditi and we are told that Aditi had been blessed with a boon that all sacrifices must commence and end with her (Aitareya Brahmana 1-7 and the Taittiriya Samhita vi 1-5-1,) . ”

“ Ushas, the dawn, and Ratri, the night, were mainly poetic conceptions. Even Prithivi, the Earth Mother, who was symbolized as a cow, played no prominent part in Vedic religion: a magical influence was exercised by water goddesses. The male origin of life appears to have been an accepted tenet of Vedic belief. Aditi, mother of the Adityas, is believed to be of more recent origin than her sons. Indra seems to have similarly had existence before his mother, like the other hammer gods, and especially P'an Ku and Ptah. ”

“ She is, in the first place, the mother of the small group of gods called Ādityas, of whom Varuṇa is the chief. Secondly, she has, like her son Varuṇa, the power of releasing from the bonds of physical suffering and moral guilt. With the latter trait her name, which means "unbinding," "freedom," is clearly connected. The unpersonified sense seems to survive in a few passages of the Rigveda. Thus a poet prays for the "secure and unlimited gift of aditi." The origin of the abstraction is probably to be explained as follows. ”

“ Syriac tradition is clear enough on the point, of course. According to this, Mar Adai (who is variously described as either the Apostle Thaddeus, or as one of "the seventy") came during the first century to Edessa and planted Christianity there. His disciple, Mari, starting from thence, became the true evangelist of Persia; descending even into Fars, until he "smelt the smell of the Apostle Thomas," [4] the traditional evangelist of India. ”

“ From the fanciful stone embroidery of her churches and palaces to a hundred singularities in dress and manners—the full-bottomed wigs and long gowns of the nobles, the black mantles and head-draperies of the ladies, the white masks worn abroad by both sexes, the publicity of social life under the arcades of the Piazza, the extraordinary freedom of intercourse in the casini, gaming-rooms and theatres—the city proclaimed, in every detail of life and architecture, her independence of any tradition but her own. ”

“ In the Krita (golden) age of old, O king, the exalted deity Aditya (once) came down from heaven into the world of men. Having seen before the assembly-house of Brahma the Self-created, Aditya was cheerfully wandering over the Earth in human form, desirous of beholding what could be seen here. It was on that occasion, O son of Pandu, that the god of day spoke unto me, O bull of the Bharata race, of that celestial Sabha (assembly) of the Grandsire, immeasurable and immaterial and indescribable, as regards form and shape, and capable of delighting the heart of every creature by its splendour. ”

“ Would Edith ever be like that, a mere custodian of the past? If she did, he thought, she would be false to the very traditions she tried to preserve. For her forefathers had never been mere guardians of things gone by. Always they had been pioneers. That house had not been old to them, but a thrilling new adventure. ”

“ Often, in company, suffering and inflicting boredom, enthroned in the brilliance of her white beauty, like a smiling idol, with the langour of her years in India gradually filling her blood until her movements had acquired that lazy indifference for anything that did not spell love and caresses, until her voice had assumed a drawling accent in any word that was not a word of passion: often the flame which Addie shed over her would transfigure into a younger woman, livelier in company, gayer, flattered by the persistent homage of this youth, on whom every girl was mad. ”

“ Still following the legend, we see Addai, one of the "Seventy," despatched by Thomas to Edessa after the resurrection of Christ, with the result that the king is immediately healed; whereupon he and a great number of his people are converted to Christianity. Addai is said to have laboured at Edessa to the end of his life, and to have died a natural death. He is succeeded by Aggai, who suffers martyrdom under Ma'nu, a heathen son of Abgar, his legs being broken while he is sitting at church. ”

“ I must tell it you, Addie.... It was during those last days, those terrible days in Paris. Eduard, my husband, was in Paris and ... and he had been threatening me.... You remember, you must remember: I told you as much as that, didn't I?... He had come to look for me in Paris. He hated me ... and he hated, oh, how he hated Henri!... Henri, my poor brother, my brother!... Addie, Addie, let me tell you everything!... Whatever people may have thought, whatever people may have said, none of it's true, it's all false! ”

“ Later on in the day Addie sits on the rocks where she stood on the night before muffled in her woolly wrap, her life almost as free from restraint and vexatious watchfulness as if she still bore her maiden name. Yes, her days are her own again in all that minor detail of [60] movement that makes the sum of existence; she can cast aside every cumbersome article of her trousseau, take off her hat, her cloak, even her shoes and stockings, and paddle in the cool waves, unheeded, unadmonished. ”