Here, though I admit that several renderings are possible, Aditi is meant as a name of Agni, to whom the whole hymn is addressed, and who, as usual, is identified with other gods, or, at all events, invoked by their names. We may translate áditih vivásvân by 'the brilliant Aditi,' or 'the unchecked, the brilliant,' or by 'the boundless Vivasvat,' but on no account can we take áditi here as the female goddess. The same applies to VIII, 19, 14, where Aditi, unless we suppose the goddess brought in in the most abrupt way, must be taken as a name of Agni; while in X, 92, 14, áditim anarvánam, to judge from other epithets given in the same verse, has most likely to be taken again as an appellative of Agni. In some passages it would, no doubt, be possible to take Aditi as the name of a female deity, if it were certain that no other meaning could be assigned to this word. But if we once know that Aditi was the name of a male deity also, the structure of these passages becomes far more perfect, if we take Aditi in that sense:

IV, 39, 3. ánâgasam tám áditih krinotu sáh mitréna várunena sa-góshâh.

May Aditi make him free from sin, he who is allied with Mitra and Varuna.

We have had several passages in which Aditi, the female deity, is represented as sagóshâh or allied with other Âdityas, but if sáh is the right reading here, Aditi in this verse can only be the male deity. The pronoun sá cannot refer to tám.

With regard to other passages, such as IX, 81, 5; VI, 51, 3, and even some of those translated above in which Aditi has been taken as a female goddess, the question must be left open till further evidence can be obtained. There is only one more passage which has been often discussed, and where áditi was supposed to have the meaning of earth:

VII, 18, 8. duh-âdhyãh áditim sreváyantah aketásah ví gagribhre párushnîm.