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,' áditer ánîkam. Thus we read:

V, 62, 8. híranya-rûpam ushásah ví-ushtau áyah-sthûnam út-itâ sû´ryasya, â´ rohathah varuna mitra gártam átah kakshâthe (íti) áditim dítim h.

Mitra and Varuna, 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 Âdityas, 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 Âdityas, the sons of Aditi, including the principal deities of the Veda.

Aditi and the Âdityas.

Thus we read:

I, 107, 2. ûpa nah devâ´h ávasâ â´ gamantu áṅgirasâm sâ´ma-bhih stûyámânâh, índrah indriyaíh marûtah marút-bhih âdityaíh nah áditih sárma yamsat.

May the gods come to us with their help, praised by the songs of the Aṅgiras,—Indra with his powers, the Maruts with the storms, may Aditi with the Âdityas give us protection!

X, 66, 3. índrah vásu-bhih pári pâtu nah gáyam âdityaíh nah áditih sárma yakkhatu, rudráh rudrébhih deváh mrilayâti nah tváshtâ nah gnâ´bhih suvitâ´ya ginvatu.

May Indra with the Vasus watch our house, may Aditi with the Âdityas give us protection, may the divine Rudra with the Rudras have mercy upon us, may Tvashtar with the mothers bring us to happiness!

III, 54, 20. âdityaíh nah áditih srinotu yákkhantu nah marûtah sárma bhadrám.

May Aditi with the Âdityas hear us, may the Maruts give us good protection!

In another passage Varuna takes the place of Aditi as the leader of the Âdityas:

VII, 35, 6. sám nah índrah vásu-bhih deváh astu sám âdityébhih várunah su-sámsah, sám nah rudráh rudrébhih gálâshah sám nah tváshtâ gnâ´bhih ihá srinotu.