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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1In the Taittirtya-arazyaka, I, 13, 3, we find the following list: 1. Mitra, 2. Varuna, 3. Dhatar, 4. Aryaman, 5. Amsa, 6. Bhaga, 7. Indra, 8. Vivasvat, but there, too, the eighth son is said to be Mart4zda, or, according to the commentator, Aditya. The character of Aditi as the mother of certain gods is also indicated by some of her epithets, such as raéga-putra, having kings for her sons; su-putra, having good sons; ugra-putra, having terrible sons: II, 27, 7. pfpartu nak dditiZ rdéga-putra ati dvéshamsi aryama su-gébhif, br#hat mitrdsya vdruvasya sarma upa syama puru-virah arish/ah. May Aditi with her royal sons, may Aryaman carry us on easy roads across the hatreds; may we with many sons and without hurt obtain the great protection of Mitra and Varuna! III, 4,11. barhiZ nak Astam dditi# su-putrd. May Aditi with her excellent sons sit on our sacred pile ! VIII, 67,11. parshi diné gabhiré @ ugra-putre gigh4msatak, maki# tokdsya naf rishat. Protect us, O goddess with terrible sons, from the enemy in shallow or deep water, and no one will hurt our off- spring ! Aditi identified with other Deities. Aditi, however, for the very reason that she was originally intended for the Infinite, for something beyond the visible world, was liable to be identified with a number of finite deities which might all be represented as resting on Aditi, as participating in Aditi, as being Aditi. Thus we read: I, 89, 10 (final). aditiz dyau% aditi# antdriksham Aditiz mata sdf pita sdk putrah, visve devah aditik pasha ganak aditiZ gatam aditi# gani-tvam. Aditi is the heaven, Aditi the sky, Aditi the mother, the NOTES, 1, 166, 12. 255 father, the son. All the gods are Aditi, the five clans, the past is Aditi, Aditi is the future. But although Aditi may thus be said to be everything, heaven, sky, and all the gods, no passage occurs, in the Rig-veda at least, where the special meaning of heaven or earth is expressed by Aditi. In X, 63, 3, where Aditi seems to mean sky, we shall see that it ought to be taken as a masculine, either in the sense of Aditya, or as an epithet, unbounded, immortal. In I, 72,9, we ought probably to read prithvi and pronounce prithuvi, and translate ‘the wide Aditi, the mother with her sons;’ and not, as Benfey does, ‘the Earth, the eternal mother.’ It is more difficult to determine whether in one passage Aditi has not been used in the sense of life after life, or as the name of the place whither people went after death, or of the deity presiding over that place. In a well-known hymn, supposed to have been uttered by Sunaksepa when on the point of being sacrificed by his own father, the following verse occurs : I, 24,1. ka& nak mahyaf{ aditaye puna dat, pitdram ka driséyam mataram fa. Who will give us back to the great Aditi, that I may see father and mother?
2ka& nak mahyaf{ aditaye puna dat, pitdram ka driséyam mataram fa. Who will give us back to the great Aditi, that I may see father and mother? As the supposed utterer of this hymn is still among the living, Aditi can hardly be taken in the sense of earth, nor would the wish to see father and mother be intelligible in the mouth of one who is going to be sacrificed by his own father. Ifwe discard the story of Sunahsepa, and take the hymn as uttered by any poet who craves for the protection of the gods in the presence of danger and death, then we may choose between the two meanings of earth or liberty, and translate, either, Who will give us back to the great earth? or, Who will restore us to the great Aditi, the goddess of freedom? Aditi and Diti. Fhere is one other passage which might receive light if we could take Aditi in the sense of Hades, but I give this translation as a mere guess: 256 VEDIC HYMNS. IV, 2, 11. rayé ka nak su-apatydya deva ditim a rasva aditim urushya. That we may enjoy our wealth and healthy offspring, give us this life on earth, keep off the life to come! Cf. I, 152, 6. It should be borne in mind that Diti occurs in the Rigveda thrice only, and in one passage it should, I believe, be changed into Aditi. This passage occurs in VII, 15, 12. tvdm agne vird-vat yasak devah ka savitd bhagat, ditik ka dati varyam. Here the name of Diti is so unusual, and that of Aditi, on the contrary, so natural, that I have little doubt that the poet had put the name of Aditi; and that later reciters, not aware of the occasional license of putting two short syllables instead of one, changed it into Aditi. If we remove this passage, then Diti, in the Rig-veda at least, occurs twice only, and each time together or in contrast with Aditi; cf. V, 62, 8, page 243. I have no doubt, therefore, that Professor Roth is right when he says that Diti is a being without any definite conception, a mere reflex of Aditi, We can clearly watch her first emergence into existence through what is hardly more than a play of words, whereas in the epic and Purdzic literature this Diti (like the Suras) has grown into a definite person, one of the daughters of Daksha, the wife of Kasyapa, the mother of the enemies of the gods, the Daityas. Such is the growth of legend, mythology and religion ! Aditi in her Moral Character. Besides the cosmical character of Aditi, which we have hitherto examined, this goddess has also assumed a very prominent moral character. Aditi, like Varuza, delivers from sin. Why this should be so, we can still understand if we watch the transition which led from a purely cosmical _toa moral conception of Aditi. Sin in the Veda is frequently conceived as a bond or a chain from which the repentant sinner wishes to be freed : VII, 86, 5. Ava drugdhéni pitrya sviga nak dva y&é vayam kakrima tanibhif, 4va r4gan pasu-trépam na tayum sriga vatsdm na daémnaz vasish¢fam. Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and from those om a“ XN : . .
3Ava drugdhéni pitrya sviga nak dva y&é vayam kakrima tanibhif, 4va r4gan pasu-trépam na tayum sriga vatsdm na daémnaz vasish¢fam. Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and from those om a“ XN : . . NOTPRL 1, 166,12. 257 which we have committed with our own bodies. Release Vasishtha, O king, like a thief who has feasted on stolen cattle; release him like a calf from the rope *. VIII, 67, 14. té nak Asnah vrtkandm ddityasak mumékata stendm baddhdm-iva adite. O Adityas, deliver us from the mouth of the wolves, like a bound thief, O Aditi! Cf. VIII, 67, 18. Sunafsepa, who, as we saw before, wishes to be restored to the great Aditi, is represented as bound (dita) by ropes, and in V, 2, 7, we read: sinahk-sépam Ait ni-ditam sahdsrat ylipat amufkak dsamishéa hi sa#, eva asmat agne vi mumugdhi pasdn hétar ({ti) kikitvad iha tu ni-sddya. O Agni, thou hast released the bound Suna/sepa from the stake, for he had prayed ; thus take from us, too, these ropes, O sagacious Hotar, after thou hast settled here. Expressions like these, words like ddman, bond, ni-dita, bound, naturally suggested 4-diti, the un-bound or unbounded, as one of those deities who could best remove the bonds of sin or misery. If we once realise this concatenation of thought and language, many passages of the Veda that seemed obscure, will become intelligible. VII, 51, 1. Adityén4am dvasa nftanena sakshimdhi s4rman4 s4m-tamena, an4g4/-tvé aditi-tvé turfsak imam yag#dm dadhatu sréshamA4nah. May we obtain the new favour of the Adityas, their best protection; may the quick Maruts listen and place this sacrifice in guiltlessness and Aditi-hood. I have translated the last words literally, in order to make their meaning quite clear. Agas has the same meaning as the Greek dyos, guilt, abomination; an-A4gastva, therefore, as applied to a sacrifice or to the man who makes it, means guiltlessness, purity. Aditi-tva, Aditi-hood, has a similar meaning, it means freedom from bonds, from anything that hinders the proper performance of a religious act; it may come to mean perfection or holiness. * See M.M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 2nd ed., : P. 541. [32] 8 258 VEDIC HYMNS. Aditi having once been conceived as granting this adititva, - soon assumed a very definite moral character, and hence the following invocations ; I, 24,15. ut ut-tamdm varuza p&sam asmat 4va adhamam vi madhyamdm srathaya, a4tha vayam Aditya vraté tava an4gasak aditaye sy4ma. O Varuaa, lift the highest rope, draw off the lowest, remove the middle; then, O Aditya, let us be in thy service free of guilt before Aditi. V, 82, 6. anagasak aditaye devdsya savituih savé, visva vaméni dhimahi. May we, guiltless before Aditi, and in the keeping of the god Savitar, obtain all goods! Professor Roth here translates Aditi by freedom or security. . I, 162, 22. anag4/-tvam nak aditiz krinotu. May Aditi give us sinlessness! Cf. VII, 51, 1.
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.
1In the Taittirtya-arazyaka, I, 13, 3, we find the following list: 1. Mitra, 2. Varuna, 3. Dhatar, 4. Aryaman, 5. Amsa, 6. Bhaga, 7. Indra, 8. Vivasvat, but there, too, the eighth son is said to be Mart4zda, or, according to the commentator, Aditya. The character of Aditi as the mother of certain gods is also indicated by some of her epithets, such as raéga-putra, having kings for her sons; su-putra, having good sons; ugra-putra, having terrible sons: II, 27, 7. pfpartu nak dditiZ rdéga-putra ati dvéshamsi aryama su-gébhif, br#hat mitrdsya vdruvasya sarma upa syama puru-virah arish/ah. May Aditi with her royal sons, may Aryaman carry us on easy roads across the hatreds; may we with many sons and without hurt obtain the great protection of Mitra and Varuna! III, 4,11. barhiZ nak Astam dditi# su-putrd. May Aditi with her excellent sons sit on our sacred pile ! VIII, 67,11. parshi diné gabhiré @ ugra-putre gigh4msatak, maki# tokdsya naf rishat. Protect us, O goddess with terrible sons, from the enemy in shallow or deep water, and no one will hurt our off- spring ! Aditi identified with other Deities. Aditi, however, for the very reason that she was originally intended for the Infinite, for something beyond the visible world, was liable to be identified with a number of finite deities which might all be represented as resting on Aditi, as participating in Aditi, as being Aditi. Thus we read: I, 89, 10 (final). aditiz dyau% aditi# antdriksham Aditiz mata sdf pita sdk putrah, visve devah aditik pasha ganak aditiZ gatam aditi# gani-tvam. Aditi is the heaven, Aditi the sky, Aditi the mother, the NOTES, 1, 166, 12. 255 father, the son. All the gods are Aditi, the five clans, the past is Aditi, Aditi is the future. But although Aditi may thus be said to be everything, heaven, sky, and all the gods, no passage occurs, in the Rig-veda at least, where the special meaning of heaven or earth is expressed by Aditi. In X, 63, 3, where Aditi seems to mean sky, we shall see that it ought to be taken as a masculine, either in the sense of Aditya, or as an epithet, unbounded, immortal. In I, 72,9, we ought probably to read prithvi and pronounce prithuvi, and translate ‘the wide Aditi, the mother with her sons;’ and not, as Benfey does, ‘the Earth, the eternal mother.’ It is more difficult to determine whether in one passage Aditi has not been used in the sense of life after life, or as the name of the place whither people went after death, or of the deity presiding over that place. In a well-known hymn, supposed to have been uttered by Sunaksepa when on the point of being sacrificed by his own father, the following verse occurs : I, 24,1. ka& nak mahyaf{ aditaye puna dat, pitdram ka driséyam mataram fa. Who will give us back to the great Aditi, that I may see father and mother?
2ka& nak mahyaf{ aditaye puna dat, pitdram ka driséyam mataram fa. Who will give us back to the great Aditi, that I may see father and mother? As the supposed utterer of this hymn is still among the living, Aditi can hardly be taken in the sense of earth, nor would the wish to see father and mother be intelligible in the mouth of one who is going to be sacrificed by his own father. Ifwe discard the story of Sunahsepa, and take the hymn as uttered by any poet who craves for the protection of the gods in the presence of danger and death, then we may choose between the two meanings of earth or liberty, and translate, either, Who will give us back to the great earth? or, Who will restore us to the great Aditi, the goddess of freedom? Aditi and Diti. Fhere is one other passage which might receive light if we could take Aditi in the sense of Hades, but I give this translation as a mere guess: 256 VEDIC HYMNS. IV, 2, 11. rayé ka nak su-apatydya deva ditim a rasva aditim urushya. That we may enjoy our wealth and healthy offspring, give us this life on earth, keep off the life to come! Cf. I, 152, 6. It should be borne in mind that Diti occurs in the Rigveda thrice only, and in one passage it should, I believe, be changed into Aditi. This passage occurs in VII, 15, 12. tvdm agne vird-vat yasak devah ka savitd bhagat, ditik ka dati varyam. Here the name of Diti is so unusual, and that of Aditi, on the contrary, so natural, that I have little doubt that the poet had put the name of Aditi; and that later reciters, not aware of the occasional license of putting two short syllables instead of one, changed it into Aditi. If we remove this passage, then Diti, in the Rig-veda at least, occurs twice only, and each time together or in contrast with Aditi; cf. V, 62, 8, page 243. I have no doubt, therefore, that Professor Roth is right when he says that Diti is a being without any definite conception, a mere reflex of Aditi, We can clearly watch her first emergence into existence through what is hardly more than a play of words, whereas in the epic and Purdzic literature this Diti (like the Suras) has grown into a definite person, one of the daughters of Daksha, the wife of Kasyapa, the mother of the enemies of the gods, the Daityas. Such is the growth of legend, mythology and religion ! Aditi in her Moral Character. Besides the cosmical character of Aditi, which we have hitherto examined, this goddess has also assumed a very prominent moral character. Aditi, like Varuza, delivers from sin. Why this should be so, we can still understand if we watch the transition which led from a purely cosmical _toa moral conception of Aditi. Sin in the Veda is frequently conceived as a bond or a chain from which the repentant sinner wishes to be freed : VII, 86, 5. Ava drugdhéni pitrya sviga nak dva y&é vayam kakrima tanibhif, 4va r4gan pasu-trépam na tayum sriga vatsdm na daémnaz vasish¢fam. Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and from those om a“ XN : . .
3Ava drugdhéni pitrya sviga nak dva y&é vayam kakrima tanibhif, 4va r4gan pasu-trépam na tayum sriga vatsdm na daémnaz vasish¢fam. Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and from those om a“ XN : . . NOTPRL 1, 166,12. 257 which we have committed with our own bodies. Release Vasishtha, O king, like a thief who has feasted on stolen cattle; release him like a calf from the rope *. VIII, 67, 14. té nak Asnah vrtkandm ddityasak mumékata stendm baddhdm-iva adite. O Adityas, deliver us from the mouth of the wolves, like a bound thief, O Aditi! Cf. VIII, 67, 18. Sunafsepa, who, as we saw before, wishes to be restored to the great Aditi, is represented as bound (dita) by ropes, and in V, 2, 7, we read: sinahk-sépam Ait ni-ditam sahdsrat ylipat amufkak dsamishéa hi sa#, eva asmat agne vi mumugdhi pasdn hétar ({ti) kikitvad iha tu ni-sddya. O Agni, thou hast released the bound Suna/sepa from the stake, for he had prayed ; thus take from us, too, these ropes, O sagacious Hotar, after thou hast settled here. Expressions like these, words like ddman, bond, ni-dita, bound, naturally suggested 4-diti, the un-bound or unbounded, as one of those deities who could best remove the bonds of sin or misery. If we once realise this concatenation of thought and language, many passages of the Veda that seemed obscure, will become intelligible. VII, 51, 1. Adityén4am dvasa nftanena sakshimdhi s4rman4 s4m-tamena, an4g4/-tvé aditi-tvé turfsak imam yag#dm dadhatu sréshamA4nah. May we obtain the new favour of the Adityas, their best protection; may the quick Maruts listen and place this sacrifice in guiltlessness and Aditi-hood. I have translated the last words literally, in order to make their meaning quite clear. Agas has the same meaning as the Greek dyos, guilt, abomination; an-A4gastva, therefore, as applied to a sacrifice or to the man who makes it, means guiltlessness, purity. Aditi-tva, Aditi-hood, has a similar meaning, it means freedom from bonds, from anything that hinders the proper performance of a religious act; it may come to mean perfection or holiness. * See M.M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 2nd ed., : P. 541. [32] 8 258 VEDIC HYMNS. Aditi having once been conceived as granting this adititva, - soon assumed a very definite moral character, and hence the following invocations ; I, 24,15. ut ut-tamdm varuza p&sam asmat 4va adhamam vi madhyamdm srathaya, a4tha vayam Aditya vraté tava an4gasak aditaye sy4ma. O Varuaa, lift the highest rope, draw off the lowest, remove the middle; then, O Aditya, let us be in thy service free of guilt before Aditi. V, 82, 6. anagasak aditaye devdsya savituih savé, visva vaméni dhimahi. May we, guiltless before Aditi, and in the keeping of the god Savitar, obtain all goods! Professor Roth here translates Aditi by freedom or security. . I, 162, 22. anag4/-tvam nak aditiz krinotu. May Aditi give us sinlessness! Cf. VII, 51, 1.
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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