Devalok
Origin · 2 tellings · Pan-India

Aditi wins the first and the last offering

Why the Soma sacrifice opens and closes with a pot of rice for Aditi: the earth, left out of the rite, confounds it until she is given a share.

Who is in it

Texts: Shatapatha Brahmana

The story, beat by beat

  1. The gods spread the sacrifice on the earth and exclude her from it.
  2. Aditi, the earth, confounds the sacrifice so the gods no longer know it.
  3. The gods realise she is the cause and go to her.
  4. She asks for a share; they give her the opening and the closing oblation.
  5. They see the sacrifice again.
  6. Pathya Svasti, Agni, Soma and Savitr appear in turn and each part of the rite, and each direction, is recognised.
  7. Through Aditi they recognise the upward direction, for plants and trees grow up on her.

sacrifice share earth directions bargain

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Shatapatha Brahmana 3.2.3

Pan-India All traditions

While spreading the sacrifice on the earth the gods exclude her. She wonders at this and confounds the rite. They work out the cause, ask her, and she demands a share; they grant her the opening (prayaniya) and closing (udayaniya) rice-pap, 'for Aditi is this earth'. Before the pap is offered Pathya Svasti, Agni, Soma and Savitr appear and are offered to, and through the five the gods recognise the five parts of the sacrifice, the five seasons and the five regions: north through Pathya Svasti, east through Agni, south through Soma, west through Savitr, the upper region through Aditi.

The Satapatha-Brahmana, tr. Julius Eggeling (Sacred Books of the East 12, 41) § 3.2.3.1-19

Primary text (translation)

Aitareya Brahmana 1.7 and Kaushitaki Brahmana 7.6

Pan-India All traditions

Aitareya: the sacrifice goes away from the gods; they ask Aditi to help them discern it; she chooses as a boon that sacrifices begin from her and end with her, and that through her they know the east, through Agni the south, through Soma the west, through Savitr the north. Kaushitaki: the gods reach heaven by the opening rite but cannot tell the quarters; Agni asks for a libation of butter and finds the east, Soma the south, Savitr the west, Pathya Svasti the north; Aditi asks for a libation of food and finds the zenith, because she is the earth on which plants, trees, men and fire stand upright.

What is different here:

No exclusion or grievance. In the Aitareya the offerings are a boon Aditi names as her price, and she is given the east with the other gods shifted round. In the Kaushitaki there is no bargain over first and last, only five gods each finding one direction.

Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas, tr. A. B. Keith (1920) § ab.1.7-8; Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas, tr. A. B. Keith (1920) § kb.7.6-8

Sources: The Satapatha-Brahmana, tr. Julius Eggeling (Sacred Books of the East 12, 41); Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas, tr. A. B. Keith (1920)

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