DITI

[Hindu] An Indian goddess. Many mythographers see Aditi as the endless sky; Diti as the earth. Both apparently come from a non-Aryan source of Hindu mythology, for their children, though recognized as supernatural, were never part of the official pantheon. Diti's children were asuras, non-gods. They were powerful beings, especially the warrior Maruts, who might have conquered the gods. Diti, whose earlier children Indra had killed, practiced magic when pregnant again. So threatened was Indra that he watched her constantly. When Diti fell into a doze, Indra entered her vagina, traveled to her womb, and dismembered the fetus. Even cut to pieces, the fetus was so powerful that it reformed into forty-nine separate warriors.