vísvasmât nah áditih pâtu ámhasah mâtâ´ mitrásya várunasya revátah svãh-vat gyótih avrikám nasîmahi. 3.

1. There are the grand and beautiful Morning and Night, Heaven and Earth, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman; I call Indra, the Maruts, the Waters, the Âdityas, Heaven and Earth, the Waters, the Heaven.

2. May Heaven and Earth, the provident, the righteous, preserve us from sin and mischief! May the malevolent Nirriti not rule over us! This blessing of the gods we ask for to-day.

3. May Aditi protect us from all sin, the mother of Mitra and of the rich Varuna! May we obtain heavenly light without enemies! This blessing of the gods we ask for to-day.

Here we cannot but admit that Dyâ´vâkshâ´mâ, heaven and earth, is meant for the same divine couple as Dyâ´vâprithivî´, heaven and earth, although under slightly differing names they are invoked separately. The waters are invoked twice in the same verse and under the same name; nor is there any indication that, as in other passages, the waters of the sky are meant as distinct from the waters of the sea. Nevertheless even here, Aditi, who in the third verse is called distinctly the mother of Mitra and Varuna, cannot well have been meant for the same deity as Heaven and Earth, mentioned in the second verse; and the author of

these two verses, while asking the same blessing from both, must have been aware of the original independent character of Aditi.

Aditi as Mother.

In this character of a deity of the far East, of an Orient in the true sense of the word, Aditi was naturally thought of as the mother of certain gods, particularly of those that were connected with the daily rising and setting of the sun. If it was asked whence comes the dawn, or the sun, or whence come day and night, or Mitra and Varuna, or any of the bright, solar, eastern deities, the natural answer was that they come from the Orient, that they are the sons of Aditi. Thus we read in

IX, 74, 3. urvî´ gávyûtih áditeh ritám yaté.

Wide is the space for him who goes on the right path of Aditi.

In VIII, 25, 3, we are told that Aditi bore Mitra and Varuna, and these in verse 5 are called the sons of Daksha (power), and the grandsons of Savas, which again means might: nápâtâ sávasah manáh sûnû´ (íti) dákshasya su-krátû (íti). In X, 36, 3, Aditi is called the mother of Mitra and Varuna; likewise in X, 132, 6; see also VI, 67, 4. In VIII, 47, 9, Aditi is called the mother of Mitra, Aryaman, Varuna, who in VII, 60, 5 are called her sons. In X, 11, 1, Varuna is called yahváh áditeh, the son of Aditi (cf. VIII, 19, 12); in VII, 41, 2, Bhaga is mentioned as her son. In X, 72, 8, we hear of eight sons of Aditi, but it is added that she approached the gods with seven sons only, and that the eighth (mârtândá, addled egg) was thrown away: ashtaú putrâ´sah áditeh yé gâtâ´h tanvãh pári, devâ´n úpa prá ait saptá-bhih párâ mârtândám âsyat.