Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/86

54 mythical intention, but to contain some effort to explain the name of Mann as "Son of Her of Like Shape," which appears to be known as early as the Ṛgveda. Perhaps she is another form of the dawn-goddess.

Other goddesses are personifications of abstract ideas, such as Śraddhā ("Faith"), who is celebrated in a short hymn (x. 151). Through her the fire is kindled, ghee is offered, and wealth is obtained, and she is invoked morning, noon, and night. Anumati represents the "favour" of the gods. Aramati ("Devotion") and Sūnṛtā ("Bounteousness") are also personified. Asunīti ("Spirit Life") is besought to prolong life, while Nirṛti ("Decease" or "Dissolution") presides over death. These are only faint figures in comparison with Aditi, if that deity is to be reckoned among the personifications of abstract concepts. She is singularly without definitive features of a physical kind, though, in contrast to the other abstractions, she is commonly known throughout the Ṛgveda. She is expanded, bright, and luminous; she is a mistress of a bright stall and a supporter of creatures; and she belongs to all men. She is the mother of Mitra and Varuṇa, of Aryaman, and of eight sons, but she is also said to be the sister of the Ādityas, the daughter of the Vasus, and the mother of the Rudras. She is often invoked to release from sin or guilt, and with Mitra and Varuṇa she is implored to forgive sin. Evil-doers are cut off from Aditi; and Varuṇa, Agni, and Savitṛ are besought to free from guilt before her. She is identified with the earth, though the sky is also mentioned under the name Aditi. In many places, however, she is named together with (and therefore as distinct from) sky and earth; and yet again it is said (I. lxxxix. 10): "Aditi is the sky; Aditi is the air; Aditi is the mother, father, and son; Aditi is all the gods and the five tribes; Aditi is whatever has been born; Aditi is whatever shall be born." Elsewhere Aditi is made both mother and daughter of Dakṣa by a species of reciprocal generation which is not rare in the Ṛgveda; and in yet other passages she is hailed as a cow.