Smithsonian Institution Press | 1985 | Eng | Pdf | 280 p | ISBN 0874748534 | 42 MB

Aditi looks at life in India through the world of the child, a world that reveals all of the richness and complexity of Indian culture. Rites of passage, fairs and festivals, performances and crafts, all drawing on ancient myth, legend, and belief, mark the path of the child's growth. As the fabric of Indian society becomes ever more technological, these traditions are challenged constantly. Aditi explores these ancient traditions in their contemporary contexts.

In one of the ancient Hindu texts of India, the Rig Veda, Aditi is the mother of the gods—the source, the process, and the essence of life. Aditi unifies beginnings and endings, man and woman, nature and the gods. Her name denotes the creative power, abundant, joyful, and unbroken, that sustains the universe. This book takes its name from Aditi, since it is this creative power that inbues the child's world with India's myriad traditions in rural and ritual arts and performance