Diti

In Sanskrit, the word Diti means tej or brilliance.Seeing Aditi's cowives being blessed with children; Diti too was eager to have a son. So, she had asked Kashyapa for company. Though Kashyapa had acceded to her request, he had asked her to wait for an hour as it was then the time when Shiva and his retinue of ghosts and spirits moved about; which was considered inauspicious and unsuited. However; Diti; shaken by the passion of love and lust, couldn't wait and she seized kashyapa by his garments, which was a sign of immodesty. Since Diti's mind was impure; tainted by lust, she would give birth to two unworthy sons who would violate all the Dharma and follow the path of Adharma. When Diti felt sorry, Kashyapa consoled her by saying that they would be slain by Lord Vishnu himself and thus be blessed by the Lord's contact in the end. Also; one of her four grandsons by her first son, would be a great devotee of Vishnu and also the noblest man (He is Prahlada). In this way, Jaya and Vijaya were born on this earth to Diti as Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha. Later in this Parva, it is stated that king Sisupala, the powerful ruler of Chedis, was also an incarnation of Hiranyakasipu, the son of Diti. Besides great Asura Hiranyakashipu, some other more famous sons of Diti are also mentioned here: Sivi,Aswa, Aswapati, Sarabha, and Chandra.