The History and Significance of the Goddess Aditi

The History and Significance of the Goddess Aditi

Aditi means limitless, shore less expanse. Aditi in Veda is Devamatri, Mother of all celestial gods. Aditi is a Sanskrit word which means boundless. All the heavenly bodies are born from her. She is the mother of every exsisting form, being the quintessence of everything and therefore the the highest Akasha (Sky). She is identified with speech in the Rig Veda.
She is considered as the womb of space and is the feminine form of Brahma. In the Rig Veda the line Daksha(the creator Of God) has come from Aditi and Aditi from Daksha (means competence) . This has reference to the continuous cycle of her rebirth of the same divine essence. She is also considered as the divine wisdom. She is the Goddess of space, consciousness, the past, the future and the fertility.

Aditi is the mother of twelve 12 Adityas(Children of Aditi according to the Rig Veda are Adityas). They are Vivasvan, Aryama, Pusa, Tvasta, Savita, Bhaga, Dhata, Vidhata, Varuna, Mitra, Satru and Urukrama. Indra, the celestial Lord is the son of Aditi and she is therefore the mother of kings. In the Rig Veda Aditi is mentioned eighty times along with other gods and goddesses.

There is no hymn attributed to Aditi in the Rig Veda and is mentioned with other gods and goddesses. It may be that she is not related to any special phenomenon like other gods and goddess. She may be defined as the cosmic creator, the creativity of all the created.
The most outstanding attribute of Aditi is her motherhood. She is the Mother of all gods. She is therefore the most important figure in the celestial world. Being the mother she is the one who grants wealth, security and prosperity and sometimes associated with a cow and her milk is the elixir and a drink 'Soma'.

She is said to have the powers to free the one who petitions her for help in case of sickness and suffering from the consequences of sin and therefore called the supporter of all creatures. .

Aditi is the mother of the Vamana, the avatar of Vishnu. Therefore Vishnu was born as the son of Aditi in the month of shravana the 5th month of the Hindu Calendar under the star Shravana. Auspicious signs appeared in the heavens, foretelling the good fortune of this child.

Aditi challenges the modern idea that the Aryans were patriarchal. Aditi was regarded as both the sky goddess, and earth goddess. This is very rare for a prehistoric civilization. Aditi was attributed the status of first deity by the Aryan culture, although she is not the only one attributed this status in the Vedas.

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