Devi in Her form as Aditi is also known as Lajja Gauri, Adya Shakti, Matangi, Renuka, and many other names. She is the most ancient Goddess form in the religious complex that is today referred to as Hinduism.
This mysterious, lotus-headed Goddess, who is always portrayed with legs opened and raised in a manner suggesting either birthing (her posture is the traditional Indian village posture for giving birth) or sexual receptivity, is most frequently referred to today as Lajja Gauri. But She is undoubtedly rooted in India's prehistory -- probably orginating in the Neolithic Indus Valley (Harappan or Saraswati) Civilization.
For example, the religious historian N. N. Bhattacharyya refers to "a seal unearthed at Harappa, show[ing] a nude female figure, head downwards and legs stretched upwards, with a plant issuing out of her womb," which may be a proto-Aditi/Lajja Gauri figure. Similar images, sculpted as recently as the 19th century, can still be found in Rajasthan (part of the region where the ancient Harappan Civilization flourished).
In discussing the seal (and the wealth of other apparent Goddess figurines associated with Harappan Civilization), Bhattacharyya posits that "in the pre-Vedic religion of India, a great Mother Goddess, the personification of all the reproductive energies of nature, was worshiped. ... The Harappan Magna Mater [Great Mother] was probably reflected in the [later Vedic] conception of Aditi, the mother of the gods, thought to be a goddess of yore even in the "Rig Veda" itself." And indeed, the Vedic description of Aditi does suggest a rather comprehensive deity:
"Aditi is the sky
Aditi is the air
Aditi is all gods ...
Aditi is the Mother, the Father, and Son
Aditi is whatever shall be born.
Rig Veda, I.89.10"""
"Aditi," Bhattacharyya concludes, "was the most ancient mother of the gods, whose original features [had become] obscure even in the Vedic age." And despite Her extreme antiquity, Lajja Gauri is still actively worshiped even today as a "fertility goddess" in some remote, rural locales. But we must not forget that the totality of Her original (and eternal) significance is much greater than this.
During the 6th to 12th centuries CE, in fact, the cult of Aditi/Lajja Gauri grew prodigiously; Her images proliferated in central India -- both in small terra cotta figures for use in home shrines, and in large (even life-size) stone sculptures for richly endowed temples. By the 13th century, however, She began a long slide into obscurity. Scholars partially attribute the decline to India's Muslim and later British Christian rulers and their intolerant attitude toward portrayals of human (and particularly female) nudity and sexuality. Another possible factor was the rise of the Tantric Goddess cults, which developed subtler, more abstract ways of depicting the primal, creative force of the Divine Feminine.
*HER STORY*
The first scriptural references to Aditi appear in no less exalted a source than the Rig Veda itself. Here, She is also referred to as Uttanapad (a term literally describing Her posture; see the passage quoted at the top of this page). The eminent Sanskrit scholar, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, identifies this Vedic Goddess as "the female principle of creation or infinity":
"[This] creation myth centers upon the image of the Goddess who crouches with legs spread (Uttanapad). This term, often taken as a proper name, designates a position associated both with yoga and with a woman giving birth, as the Mother Goddess is often depicted in early sculpture: literally, with feet stretched forward, more particularly with knees drawn up and legs spread wide."
O'Flaherty's colleague, Carol Radcliffe Bolon, agrees that the "form of the Goddess most widely known today as Lajja Gauri fits the Vedic descriptions of the Mother of the Gods, Aditi," but notes that the unlettered artisans who carved Her images and the devotees who worshipped Her were probably unaware of this formidable pedigree.
In this case, however, ignorance of priestly interpretations was probably not much of a handicap: Lajja's visual message seems abundantly clear. Her frequent juxtaposition with the Shiva linga (an aniconic, phallic form of the Divine Masculine Principle), and Her association with lions and the god Ganesh, suggest beyond a doubt that She was considered a manifestation of the Supreme Devi, specifically Parvati (who is also called Gauri). Her size (always equal to Shiva's), and the prominent display of Her full breasts (suggesting life-giving nurture and sustenance) and yoni (vulva, womb; suggesting generative, creative power) indicate that She probably served as a Feminine counterpart to the Masculine linga.
Several myths exist concerning Lajja Gauri, but scholars consider them to be inauthentic, late attempts to replace the Goddess's original, forgotten lore. Many of these tales involve a dominant Lord Shiva testing his wife's modesty by publicly disrobing Her, whereupon Her head either falls off or sinks into Her body from shame, thereby proving Her purity -- and providing a Shiva-centered explanation of how such a boldly self-displaying Goddess got a name like "Lajja Gauri" -- literally, "Modest Parvati" or "Ashamed Parvati."
More useful clues to Her actual meaning may be found in the oral folktales that still circulate about Her in rural India. For example, as noted above, She is often referred to as Matangi
, the "outcaste goddess" form of Parvati, who is known for ignoring and flaunting society's rules, hierarchies and conventions. Elsewhere, She is called Renuka, an outcaste woman beheaded by a high-caste man. Rather than dying, Renuka grew a lotus in place of her head and became a Goddess. These stories -- both involving the deification of an outcaste woman -- seem to suggest the irrepressibility of the Feminine Principle, its transcendence of and ultimate superiority over any manmade social systems that would attempt to contain or control the pure force of feminine creative power. And lest we underestimate the primal persistence and importance of this archetype to the human psyche, recall that the oldest known sculpture made by a human being -- the so-called Willendorf Goddess or "Venus," c. 30,000-40,000 BCE -- also depicts a nude female deity with a flower for a head.