Diti’s Grief — How the Storm-Gods Were Born
From one mother’s pain — and her forgiveness — the forty-nine wind-gods, the Maruts, are born.
The sage Vishvamitra tells this story to Rama and Lakshmana.
सप्तधा तु कृते गर्भे दितिः परमदुःखिता ।
सहस्राक्षं दुराधर्षं वाक्यं सानुनयाब्रवीत् ॥
ममापराधाद्गर्भोऽयं सप्तधा शकलीकृतः ।
नापराधो हि देवेश तवात्र बलसूदन ॥
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa · Bāla Kāṇḍa 47.1–2
When the womb was split sevenfold, Diti, stricken with grief, spoke gently to thousand-eyed Indra — “O slayer of Bala, this womb was broken into seven by my own fault; no blame is yours.”
And the very words with which Indra later hushed the crying child — “मा रुद, मा रुद” (weep not, weep not) — became the name Marut.
Diti and Aditi were both daughters of Prajāpati Daksha, both wives of the sage Kashyapa. Aditi’s sons were called devas, Diti’s sons daityas. In the churning of the ocean, in the war over the nectar, Indra and the gods destroyed Diti’s sons. Stricken with grief, Diti begged her husband Kashyapa — “Give me a son who can slay Indra.” Kashyapa granted it, on the condition that she keep a thousand years of the most severe observances.
Diti began her penance. Indra, afraid, took to serving his stepmother — pressing her feet, tending her fire, all of it — only so that he might, given the chance, destroy the child in her womb. When just ten of the thousand years remained, Diti, weary one day, fell asleep with her head where her feet should lie — a state counted impure for an ascetic. This was the opening Indra wanted.
He took a subtle form, entered her womb, and with his thunderbolt cut the child into seven pieces. The pieces screamed in pain. Indra tried to quiet them — “मा रुद, मा रुद.” When they would not be stilled, he cut each of the seven again into seven — forty-nine in all.
When Diti woke and saw what had become of her womb, she was struck with sorrow. But understanding her own fault, she forgave Indra, who stood repentant with folded hands. “By the very words you used to comfort them,” she said, “let these my sons be known as the Maruts. Make them lords of the different heights of the sky, gods of the wind.” And so, out of a mother’s pain and mercy, the forty-nine Maruts — the wind-gods — were born, who became Indra’s own companions and the guardians of heaven.