Diti's Wish

Diti, another of Kaśyapa's wives, was the sister of Aditi, the mother of the gods; Diti's sons were the demons. When her sons had been killed by the gods, Diti, in deep grief, said to her husband Kaśyapa, the son of Marīci: Lord, I have lost my sons to your mighty sons. I want a son who will kill Indra, won by long austerity. I will practise austerity; give me a son who is strong, a great archer, firm in dharma, who looks on all alike, and who will slay Indra.

Kaśyapa said to her in her sorrow: So be it. Keep yourself pure. If you stay pure for a full thousand years, you will bear from me a son who will slay Indra in battle and be lord of the three worlds. And he stroked her with his hand and blessed her and went away to his austerity.

Diti went to Kuśaplavana and practised fierce austerity, and Indra himself served her, bringing fire and fuel and water, fruits and roots, rubbing her limbs and taking away her weariness. When only ten years of the thousand were left, Diti, much pleased, said to Indra: When I asked your father, he promised me a son at the end of a thousand years. Only ten years are left. Then you will see your brother. For your sake I will calm that son of mine, eager for victory as he will be, and free of care you will enjoy with him the conquest of the three worlds.

At midday she fell asleep with her feet where her head should have been and her hair where her feet should be, and Indra, seeing her impure, laughed and entered her body and with his thunderbolt cut the unborn child into seven parts. The child cried out, and Diti woke. Do not weep, do not weep, Indra said, and went on cutting. Do not kill him, do not kill him! cried Diti, and at his mother's word Indra came out, folding his hands. You slept impure, with your hair where your feet should be, he said. That gave me my chance, and I cut the one who was to slay me in battle into seven. Forgive me.

It was my own fault, said Diti. There is no fault in you. Let these seven be the guardians of the regions of the winds, and let them roam the sky in divine form as my sons, known as the Maruts: one in the world of Brahmā, one in the world of Indra, the third in the sky as the wind, and four in the four quarters at your command. So be it, said Indra. So the seven pieces of the child became Diti's seven sons, the Maruts, keepers of the winds. Indra was not Diti's own son but her sister Aditi's, yet Diti had called him son, and the two of them, mother and son, went to heaven together.