Diti is a daughter of Daksha. Diti got married to the sage Kashyapa and became the mother of the Daityas. Diti is termed the general mother of Titans and malignant beings. Diti lost her children and appeased Kashyapa and the great sage promised her a boon. At this, Diti prayed for a son of irresistible prowess who should destroy Lord Indra. Kashyapa granted his wife the gift on one condition that she would bear the baby in her womb for a hundred years with wholly pious and pure thoughts.

Diti agreed at this condition and during gestation, she observed the rules of mental and personal purity. Indra was aware of what was going on and tried to prevent it. In the last year of her gestation, one night Diti retired to sleep without performing the prescribed ablution of her feet and fell asleep.

At this, the thunderer god Indra divided the embryo in her womb into seven portions. The child thus mutilated and cried bitterly. Lord Indra could not console and silence the child. So, he divided each of the seven portions of the embryo into seven and thus formed the swift-moving deities called Maruts (winds).

As per this myth, Lord Indra destroyed the unborn child of Diti with his thunder-bolt, from which afterwards came the Maruts or gods of wind and storm.

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