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Rig Veda · 909 of 1027
Mandala 10: HYMN LXXII. The Gods.
1.LET US with tuneful skill proclaim these generations of the Gods, That one may see them when these hymns are chanted in a future age.
2.These Brahmaṇaspati produced with blast and smelting, like a Smith, Existence, in an earlier age of Gods, from Non-existence sprang.
3.Existence, in the earliest age of Gods, from Non-existence sprang. Thereafter were the regions born. This sprang from the Productive Power.
4.Earth sprang from the Productive Power the regions from the earth were born. Dakṣa was born of Aditi, and Aditi was Dakṣa’s Child.
5.For Aditi, O Dakṣa, she who is thy Daughter, was brought forth. After her were the blessed Gods born sharers of immortal life.
6.When ye, O Gods, in yonder deep closeclasping one another stood, Thence, as of dancers, from your feet a thickening cloud of dust arose.
7.When, O ye Gods, like Yatis, ye caused all existing things to grow, Then ye brought Sūrya forward who was lying hidden in the sea.
8.Eight are the Sons of Adid who from her body sprang to life. With seven she went to meet the Gods she cast Martanda far away.
9.So with her Seven Sons Aditi went forth to meet the earlier age. She brought Martanda thitherward to spring to life and die again.
Asked of Guide
Why does Aditi both give birth to gods and cast Martanda away to die?
The chapter says Aditi is born of Dakṣa and then produces “eight Sons” who are linked to the earlier gods; she acts as a progenitor who brings forth life and the immortal gods. It reports that with “seven she went to meet the Gods” while she “cast Martanda far away,” presenting Martanda as the one who “spring[s] to life and die[s] again,” which frames him as the mortal or transient among her children.
This passage treats Aditi as the matrix of cosmic generations where immortality and mortality coexist: most offspring join the immortal order, while Martanda embodies cyclical birth-and-death. The same tension appears in other Vedic hymns where Sūrya or the Maruts alternate between permanence and disappearance, a theme also explored in the Brihadaranyaka and later commentaries on Vedic cosmology.
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