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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Such a conception became of necessity a being, a person, a god. To us such a name and such a conception seem decidedly modern, and to find in the Veda Aditi, the [32] R 242 VEDIC HYMNS. Infinite, as the mother of the principal gods, is certainly, at first sight, startling. But the fact is that the thoughts of primitive humanity were not only different from our thoughts, but different also from what we think their thoughts ought to have been. The poets of the Veda indulged freely in theogonic speculations, without being frightened by any contradictions. They knew of Indra as the greatest of gods, they knew of Agni as the god of gods, they knew of Varuza as the ruler of all, but they were by no means startled at the idea that their Indra had a mother, or that their Agni was born like a babe from the friction of two fire-sticks, or that Varuza and his brother Mitra were nursed in the lap of Aditi. Some poet would take hold of the idea of an unbounded power, of Aditi, originally without any reference to other gods. Very soon these ideas met, and, without any misgivings, either the gods were made subordinate to, and represented as the sons of Aditi, or where Indra was to be praised as supreme, Aditi was represented as doing him homage. VIII, 12,14. utd sva-rage dditiz st6mam {ndraya giganat. And Aditi produced a hymn for Indra, the king. Here Professor Roth takes Aditi as an epithet of Agni, not as the name of the goddess Aditi, while Dr. Muir rightly takes it in the latter sense, and likewise retains st6mam instead of sémam, as printed by Professor Aufrecht. Cf. VII, 38, 4. The idea of the Infinite, as I have tried to show elsewhere, was most powerfully impressed on the awakening mind, or, as we now say, was revealed, by the East*®. ‘It is impossible to enter fully into all the thoughts and feelings that passed through the minds of the early poets when they formed names for that far, far East from whence even the early dawn, the sun, the day, their own life, seemed to spring. A new life flashed up every morning before their eyes, and the fresh breezes of the dawn reached them like greetings from the distant lands beyond the mountains, beyond the clouds, beyond the dawn, beyond “ the immortal * Lectures on the Science of Language, Second Series, p. 499. NOTES. I, 166, 12. 243 sea which brought us hither.” The dawn seemed to them to open golden gates for the sun to pass in triumph, and while those gates were open, their eyes and their mind strove in their childish way to pierce beyond the limits of this finite world. That silent aspect awakened in the human mind the conception of the Infinite, the Immortal, the Divine.’ Aditi is a name for that distant East, but Aditi is more than the dawn. Aditi is beyond the dawn, and in one place (I, 113, 19) the dawn is called ‘the face of Aditi,’ dditer dnikam. Thus we read:
2Aditi is beyond the dawn, and in one place (I, 113, 19) the dawn is called ‘the face of Aditi,’ dditer dnikam. Thus we read: V, 62, 8. hfrazya-ripam ushdsaf vi-ushfau a4ya#-sthdzam Ut-it4 sfiryasya, & rohathak varuma mitra gdrtam dtak kakshathe (iti) dditim di{tim 4a. Mitra and Varuza, you mount your chariot, which is golden, when the dawn bursts forth, and has iron poles at the setting of the sun: from thence you see Aditi and Diti, i.e. what is yonder and what is here. If we keep this original conception of Aditi clearly before our mind, the various forms which Aditi assumes, even in the hymns of the Veda, will not seem incoherent. Aditi is not a prominent deity in the Veda, she is celebrated rather in her sons, the Adityas, than in her own person. While there are so many hymns addressed to Ushas, the dawn, or Indra, or Agni, or Savitar, there is but one hymn, X, 72, which from our point of view, though not from that of Indian theologians, might be called a hymn to Aditi. Nevertheless Aditi is a familiar name; a name of the past, whether in time or in thought only, and a name that lives on in the name of the Adityas, the sons of Aditi, including the principal deities of the Veda. Aditi and the Adityas. Thus we read: I, 107, 2. ipa nak deva& dvasi & gamantu dngirasim sima-bhiz sthydman4#, {ndrak indriyafZ maritaA marttbhiz AdityafZ nak aditizA sarma yamsat. May the gods come to us with their help, praised by the songs of the Angiras,—Indra with his powers, the Maruts with the storms, may Aditi with the Adityas give us protection ! R2 e 244 VEDIC HYMNS. — X, 66, 3. indrak vdsu-bhiX pari patu nak gdyam Adityaihk nak Aditi sarma yakkAatu, rudrak rudrébhi# devas mriilayati nak tvdsh¢4 nak gnabhik suvitdya ginvatu. May Indra with the Vasus watch our house, may Aditi with the Adityas give us protection, may the divine Rudra with the Rudras have mercy upon us, may Tvashéar with the mothers bring us to happiness! III, 54, 20. AdityafZ nak aditiz srinotu yakkhantu nak maritad sdrma bhadram. May Aditi with the Adityas hear us, may the Maruts give us good protection! In another passage Varuza takes the place of Aditi as the leader of the Adityas: VII, 35, 6. sam nak indrak vdsu-bhis devas astu sim AdityébhiZ varuzah su-sdmsah, sim nah rudrah rudrébhik galdshak sdm nak tvdsh/A gnabhi# ihd svinotu. May Indra bless us, the god with the Vasus! May Varuza, the glorious, bless us with the Adityas! May the relieving Rudra with the Rudras bless us! May Tvashéar with the mothers kindly hear us here! Even in passages where the poet seems to profess an exclusive worship of Aditi, as in V, 69, 3. praté# devim aditim gohavimi madhydndine ut-itd sdryasya, I invoke the divine Aditi early in the morning, at noon, and at the setting of the sun, Mitra and Varuva, her principal sons, are mentioned immediately after, and implored, like her, to bestow blessings on their worshipper. Her exclusive worship appears once, in VIII, 19, 14.
3Her exclusive worship appears once, in VIII, 19, 14. A very frequent expression is that of Aditya daditiz without any copula, to signify the Adityas and Aditi: IV, 25, 3. kd# devinam avahk adya vrinite kak Adityan aditim gyédtik itze. Who does choose now the protection of the gods? Who asks the Adityas, Aditi, for their light? VI, 51, 5. visve Adityak adite sa-géshas asmabhyam sarma bahuldm vi yanta. NOTES. I, 166, 12. 245 All ye Adityas, Aditi together, grant to us your manifold protection! X, 39, 11. nd tam r4gdnau adite kitak kand nd Amhak asnoti duA-itém nakiZ bhaydm. O ye two kings (the Asvins), Aditi, no evil reaches him from anywhere, no misfortune, no fear (whom you protect). Cf. VII, 66, 6. X, 63, 5. tin & vivasa ndmasa suvrékti-bhi# mahds Adityan aditim svastdye. I cherish them with worship and with hymns, the great Adityas, Aditi, for happiness’ sake. X, 63,17. eva platé# sdnué avivridhat vak visve Adityah adite manishf. The wise son of Plati magnified you, all ye Adityas, Aditi! X, 65,9. pargdnyAvata vréshabhé purishina indravaydi (iti) varunahk mitrdé aryama, devén Adity&n dditim havamahe yé parthivdsak divyasah ap-su yé. There are Parganya and VAta, the powerful, the givers of rain, Indra and Vayu, Varuza, Mitra, Aryaman, we call the divine Adityas, Aditi, those who dwell on the earth, in heaven, in the waters. We may not be justified in saying that there ever was a period in the history of the religious thought of India, a period preceding the worship of the Adityas, when Aditi, the Infinite, was worshipped, though to the sage who first coined this name, it expressed, no doubt, for a time the principal, if not the only object of his faith and worship. Aditi and Daksha. Soon, however, the same mental process which led on later speculators from the earth to the elephant, and from the elephant to the tortoise, led the Vedic poets beyond Aditi, the Infinite. There was something beyond that Infinite which for a time they had grasped by the name of Aditi, and this, whether intentionally or by a mere accident of language, they called ddksha, literally power or the powerful. All this, no doubt, sounds strikingly modern, yet, though the passages in which this daksha is mentioned are few in number, I should not venture to 246 VEDIC HYMNS. say that they are necessarily modern, even if by modern we mean only later than 1000 B.c. Nothing can bring the perplexity of the ancient mind, if once drawn into this vortex of speculation, more clearly before us than if we read: ‘X, 72, 4-5. aditeA ddkshak agdyata ddkshat fz (iti) dditiz pari,—dditizZ h{ 4ganish¢a ddksha y& duhité tava, tam devaz anu agdyanta bhadra/ amr¢ta-bandhava. Daksha was born of Aditi, and Aditi from Daksha. For Aditi was born, O Daksha, she who is thy daughter; after her the gods were born, the blessed, who share in immortality. Or, in more mythological language: X, 64, 5. dakshasya va adite ganmani vraté ragana mitravaruva 4 vivdsasi.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Such a conception became of necessity a being, a person, a god. To us such a name and such a conception seem decidedly modern, and to find in the Veda Aditi, the [32] R 242 VEDIC HYMNS. Infinite, as the mother of the principal gods, is certainly, at first sight, startling. But the fact is that the thoughts of primitive humanity were not only different from our thoughts, but different also from what we think their thoughts ought to have been. The poets of the Veda indulged freely in theogonic speculations, without being frightened by any contradictions. They knew of Indra as the greatest of gods, they knew of Agni as the god of gods, they knew of Varuza as the ruler of all, but they were by no means startled at the idea that their Indra had a mother, or that their Agni was born like a babe from the friction of two fire-sticks, or that Varuza and his brother Mitra were nursed in the lap of Aditi. Some poet would take hold of the idea of an unbounded power, of Aditi, originally without any reference to other gods. Very soon these ideas met, and, without any misgivings, either the gods were made subordinate to, and represented as the sons of Aditi, or where Indra was to be praised as supreme, Aditi was represented as doing him homage. VIII, 12,14. utd sva-rage dditiz st6mam {ndraya giganat. And Aditi produced a hymn for Indra, the king. Here Professor Roth takes Aditi as an epithet of Agni, not as the name of the goddess Aditi, while Dr. Muir rightly takes it in the latter sense, and likewise retains st6mam instead of sémam, as printed by Professor Aufrecht. Cf. VII, 38, 4. The idea of the Infinite, as I have tried to show elsewhere, was most powerfully impressed on the awakening mind, or, as we now say, was revealed, by the East*®. ‘It is impossible to enter fully into all the thoughts and feelings that passed through the minds of the early poets when they formed names for that far, far East from whence even the early dawn, the sun, the day, their own life, seemed to spring. A new life flashed up every morning before their eyes, and the fresh breezes of the dawn reached them like greetings from the distant lands beyond the mountains, beyond the clouds, beyond the dawn, beyond “ the immortal * Lectures on the Science of Language, Second Series, p. 499. NOTES. I, 166, 12. 243 sea which brought us hither.” The dawn seemed to them to open golden gates for the sun to pass in triumph, and while those gates were open, their eyes and their mind strove in their childish way to pierce beyond the limits of this finite world. That silent aspect awakened in the human mind the conception of the Infinite, the Immortal, the Divine.’ Aditi is a name for that distant East, but Aditi is more than the dawn. Aditi is beyond the dawn, and in one place (I, 113, 19) the dawn is called ‘the face of Aditi,’ dditer dnikam. Thus we read:
2Aditi is beyond the dawn, and in one place (I, 113, 19) the dawn is called ‘the face of Aditi,’ dditer dnikam. Thus we read: V, 62, 8. hfrazya-ripam ushdsaf vi-ushfau a4ya#-sthdzam Ut-it4 sfiryasya, & rohathak varuma mitra gdrtam dtak kakshathe (iti) dditim di{tim 4a. Mitra and Varuza, you mount your chariot, which is golden, when the dawn bursts forth, and has iron poles at the setting of the sun: from thence you see Aditi and Diti, i.e. what is yonder and what is here. If we keep this original conception of Aditi clearly before our mind, the various forms which Aditi assumes, even in the hymns of the Veda, will not seem incoherent. Aditi is not a prominent deity in the Veda, she is celebrated rather in her sons, the Adityas, than in her own person. While there are so many hymns addressed to Ushas, the dawn, or Indra, or Agni, or Savitar, there is but one hymn, X, 72, which from our point of view, though not from that of Indian theologians, might be called a hymn to Aditi. Nevertheless Aditi is a familiar name; a name of the past, whether in time or in thought only, and a name that lives on in the name of the Adityas, the sons of Aditi, including the principal deities of the Veda. Aditi and the Adityas. Thus we read: I, 107, 2. ipa nak deva& dvasi & gamantu dngirasim sima-bhiz sthydman4#, {ndrak indriyafZ maritaA marttbhiz AdityafZ nak aditizA sarma yamsat. May the gods come to us with their help, praised by the songs of the Angiras,—Indra with his powers, the Maruts with the storms, may Aditi with the Adityas give us protection ! R2 e 244 VEDIC HYMNS. — X, 66, 3. indrak vdsu-bhiX pari patu nak gdyam Adityaihk nak Aditi sarma yakkAatu, rudrak rudrébhi# devas mriilayati nak tvdsh¢4 nak gnabhik suvitdya ginvatu. May Indra with the Vasus watch our house, may Aditi with the Adityas give us protection, may the divine Rudra with the Rudras have mercy upon us, may Tvashéar with the mothers bring us to happiness! III, 54, 20. AdityafZ nak aditiz srinotu yakkhantu nak maritad sdrma bhadram. May Aditi with the Adityas hear us, may the Maruts give us good protection! In another passage Varuza takes the place of Aditi as the leader of the Adityas: VII, 35, 6. sam nak indrak vdsu-bhis devas astu sim AdityébhiZ varuzah su-sdmsah, sim nah rudrah rudrébhik galdshak sdm nak tvdsh/A gnabhi# ihd svinotu. May Indra bless us, the god with the Vasus! May Varuza, the glorious, bless us with the Adityas! May the relieving Rudra with the Rudras bless us! May Tvashéar with the mothers kindly hear us here! Even in passages where the poet seems to profess an exclusive worship of Aditi, as in V, 69, 3. praté# devim aditim gohavimi madhydndine ut-itd sdryasya, I invoke the divine Aditi early in the morning, at noon, and at the setting of the sun, Mitra and Varuva, her principal sons, are mentioned immediately after, and implored, like her, to bestow blessings on their worshipper. Her exclusive worship appears once, in VIII, 19, 14.
3Her exclusive worship appears once, in VIII, 19, 14. A very frequent expression is that of Aditya daditiz without any copula, to signify the Adityas and Aditi: IV, 25, 3. kd# devinam avahk adya vrinite kak Adityan aditim gyédtik itze. Who does choose now the protection of the gods? Who asks the Adityas, Aditi, for their light? VI, 51, 5. visve Adityak adite sa-géshas asmabhyam sarma bahuldm vi yanta. NOTES. I, 166, 12. 245 All ye Adityas, Aditi together, grant to us your manifold protection! X, 39, 11. nd tam r4gdnau adite kitak kand nd Amhak asnoti duA-itém nakiZ bhaydm. O ye two kings (the Asvins), Aditi, no evil reaches him from anywhere, no misfortune, no fear (whom you protect). Cf. VII, 66, 6. X, 63, 5. tin & vivasa ndmasa suvrékti-bhi# mahds Adityan aditim svastdye. I cherish them with worship and with hymns, the great Adityas, Aditi, for happiness’ sake. X, 63,17. eva platé# sdnué avivridhat vak visve Adityah adite manishf. The wise son of Plati magnified you, all ye Adityas, Aditi! X, 65,9. pargdnyAvata vréshabhé purishina indravaydi (iti) varunahk mitrdé aryama, devén Adity&n dditim havamahe yé parthivdsak divyasah ap-su yé. There are Parganya and VAta, the powerful, the givers of rain, Indra and Vayu, Varuza, Mitra, Aryaman, we call the divine Adityas, Aditi, those who dwell on the earth, in heaven, in the waters. We may not be justified in saying that there ever was a period in the history of the religious thought of India, a period preceding the worship of the Adityas, when Aditi, the Infinite, was worshipped, though to the sage who first coined this name, it expressed, no doubt, for a time the principal, if not the only object of his faith and worship. Aditi and Daksha. Soon, however, the same mental process which led on later speculators from the earth to the elephant, and from the elephant to the tortoise, led the Vedic poets beyond Aditi, the Infinite. There was something beyond that Infinite which for a time they had grasped by the name of Aditi, and this, whether intentionally or by a mere accident of language, they called ddksha, literally power or the powerful. All this, no doubt, sounds strikingly modern, yet, though the passages in which this daksha is mentioned are few in number, I should not venture to 246 VEDIC HYMNS. say that they are necessarily modern, even if by modern we mean only later than 1000 B.c. Nothing can bring the perplexity of the ancient mind, if once drawn into this vortex of speculation, more clearly before us than if we read: ‘X, 72, 4-5. aditeA ddkshak agdyata ddkshat fz (iti) dditiz pari,—dditizZ h{ 4ganish¢a ddksha y& duhité tava, tam devaz anu agdyanta bhadra/ amr¢ta-bandhava. Daksha was born of Aditi, and Aditi from Daksha. For Aditi was born, O Daksha, she who is thy daughter; after her the gods were born, the blessed, who share in immortality. Or, in more mythological language: X, 64, 5. dakshasya va adite ganmani vraté ragana mitravaruva 4 vivdsasi.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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