Devalok
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Aditi

Also called: Devamata, Mother of the Adityas, Mother of Kings

The Vedic mother goddess whose name means 'unbound'. She has no hymn of her own in the Rigveda but is named about eighty times, nearly always with her sons the Adityas (Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman and others). She is asked to free people from guilt and distress, to shelter herds and children, and one verse (RV 1.89.10) identifies her with sky, air, all gods and all that is born. RV 10.72 says Daksha was born of her and she of Daksha, and that she bore eight sons and cast the eighth, Martanda, away. The Brahmanas equate her with the earth and give her the opening and closing rice offerings of the Soma sacrifice. In the epics and Puranas she is the daughter of Daksha, wife of Kashyapa, mother of the twelve Adityas and of Vamana, and the owner of the earrings stolen by Naraka.

motherhood freedom earth boundlessness

Sources: Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer; Vedic Mythology, A. A. Macdonell (1897); The Satapatha-Brahmana, tr. Julius Eggeling (Sacred Books of the East 12, 41); The Vishnu Purana, tr. H. H. Wilson (1840) · see Aditi's web

Relations 25

Aditi parent of

  • Varuna (God)
    Aditi is the mother of Mitra and of Varuna.
  • Mitra (God)
    Aditi is the mother of Mitra and of Varuna.
  • Aryaman (God)
    Aditi is the mother of Aryaman (RV 8.47.9); he is listed among the Adityas in RV 2.27.1.
  • Bhaga (God)
    Bhaga is one of the six Adityas of RV 2.27.1.
  • Amsha (God)
    Amsha is one of the six Adityas of RV 2.27.1.
  • Daksha (King)
    Daksha is one of the six Adityas of RV 2.27.1, and RV 10.72.4 says Daksha was born of Aditi. The same verse makes her his child.
  • Martanda (God)
    Eight sons were born of Aditi; with seven she went to the gods and Martanda she cast away.
  • The Adityas (God)
    The name Adityas is formed from their mother's name. The Atharvaveda once gives their mother as Madhukasha, daughter of the Vasus.
  • Surya (God)
    Surya bears the mother-name Aditya, son of Aditi (RV 1.50.12, 1.191.9), yet RV 10.37.1 names Dyaus as his father and another passage sets him apart from the Adityas.
  • Indra (God)
    Indra is a son of Aditi in the Maitrayani Samhita (2.1.12) and is in the Taittiriya Brahmana's list of eight Adityas; the Rigveda once calls him the fourth Aditya. The Shatapatha Brahmana (11.6.3.5) counts him apart from the twelve.
  • Vivasvat (God)
    Vivasvat is in the Taittiriya Brahmana's list of the eight sons of Aditi and is called Aditya in the Yajurveda and Brahmanas; the Puranas keep him among the twelve.
  • Dhatri (God)
    Dhatri is one of the eight sons of Aditi named in Taittiriya Brahmana 1.1.9.1 and one of the twelve Adityas of the Vishnu Purana.
  • Vishnu (God)
    In the epics and Puranas Aditi is the mother of Vishnu in his dwarf form, and Vishnu heads the list of the twelve Adityas. The Rigveda does not call him her son.
  • Savitr (God)
    Savitr is one of the twelve Adityas born to Kashyapa and Aditi in the Vishnu Purana. In the Rigveda he is only once listed beside four Adityas (RV 8.18.3).
  • Pushan (God)
    Pushan is one of the twelve Adityas born to Kashyapa and Aditi in the Vishnu Purana. The Rigveda does not call him an Aditya.
  • Tvashtri (God)
    Tvashtri is one of the twelve Adityas in later mythology. The Rigveda does not call him a son of Aditi.
  • Rudras (Concept)
    One verse calls Aditi the mother of the Rudras, daughter of the Vasus and sister of the Adityas (RV 8.90.15 in Macdonell's numbering).

Aditi blessed

Aditi child of

  • Daksha (King)
    RV 10.72.4-5: Aditi was Daksha's child, his daughter. The epics and Puranas keep this side: Aditi is the daughter of Daksha.
  • Vasus (Concept)
    The same verse calls Aditi the daughter of the Vasus. Macdonell marks it as strange beside her usual place as mother.

Aditi consort of

  • Vishnu (God)
    The Vajasaneyi Samhita (29.60) and Taittiriya Samhita (7.5.14) call Aditi the wife of Vishnu. The Puranas make her his mother instead.
  • Kashyapa (Sage)
    In the Vishnu Purana Aditi, daughter of Daksha, is the wife of Kashyapa.

Aditi form of

  • Prithvi (God)
    Aditi is often identified with the Earth in the Taittiriya Samhita and Shatapatha Brahmana, and the Naighantuka lists her name as a word for earth. Many Rigveda verses name her apart from Heaven and Earth.

Aditi received a boon from

Stories 7

Cited