the story of Maruts...

नोत्तरस्यां प्रदीच्यां वा कुर्वीत शयने शिरः।

शय्याविपर्ययाद् गर्भो दितेः शक्रेण पातितः॥६

क्षेमेन्द्रकविप्रणीते चारुचर्यायाम्॥

nottarasyāṁ pradīcyāṁ vā kurvīta śayane śiraḥ|

śayyāviparyayād garbho diteḥ śakreṇa pātitaḥ||6

kṣemendrakaviprṇīte cārucaryāyām||

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Another important advice on proper lifestyle by the great poet Kshemendra in his Charucharya.

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One should never keep his head directed towards North of West when he is sleeping .

The wrong choice of mode of keeping the body while sleeping by Diti made it possible for Indra to cut the embryo in her womb.

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The story has reference to the birth of Maruts, the group of seven gods of wind..

The story of origin of Maruts is described in various Puranas.. and indicated in Vedas too..

The story-line is this..

The Devas and Asuras joined together and churned the milky ocean to win Amrutam.. the elixir that would keep people from away from old age and death..

Though Devas took the help of the Asuras for supplying manpower to churn the ocean, they did not want to share the ultimate product Amritam with the Asuras.

Devas were the sons of Aditi the daughter of Dakshaprajapathi, and Asuras were the sons of Diti, another daughter of Daksha..

Both Aditi and Diti were married to Kashyapa Prajapathi.

The Devas stole the Amritam and drank them and the Asuras were cheated..

A fierce battle followed and the Asuras, the sons of Diti were all killed.

Overcome with grief, Diti pleaded with her husband Kashyapa that she should beget a son who could defeat Indra, the leader of Gods and gain the Swargarajya..

The sage Kashyapa blessed her with a pregnancy and informed her that she should hold that embryo in her womb carefully for a very long period and should worship the supreme Lord all the time for the strength and growth of the powerful child.

Hundred years passed..

And Diti continued to remain in her pregnancy.

Indra got the wind of the growing rival in the womb of his aunt.

He disguised himself as a sevant and joint the service of Diti, serving her with all alacrity, all the time biding for an opportuinty to finish of the child growing in the womb of Diti..

Finally he got a chance, when Diti, inadvertently, broke the rules of ablutions prior to going to bed, and she slept in her bed directing her head towardd the prohibited direction.. North..

The powers of penance possessed by Diti were depleted by this action.

Indra seized the opportunity, and entered the womb of Aditi and cut the embryo into seven pieces with his strong weapon Vajra.

The embryo cried in pain.. and Indra told it not to cry.. Maa Rudaa मा रुद in Sanskrit meaning " Do not cry.."

So the pieces of embryo were called Maruts.

The damage was done..

The embryo cut to seven pieces survived but their strenght was depleted..

The seven children born to Diti thus were called Maruts, and together they preside over the winds..

There is a version that the seven pieces of cut embryos were further dissected to seven further pieces apiece..

That is beside the point..

The lack of alacrity shown by Diti in choosing the position of body while sleeping cost her the most powerful son she should have had..

Cut to seven pieces, the Maruts were far less powerful and they posed no challenge to Indra..

In fact the Maruts were assigned positions of Gods of wind in the sevice of Indra.. and they are in that duty till date..

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The moral of the story is that one should be very careful in choosing the location for his nighly sleep, and also that he should be very careful not to sleep with his head directed towards the prohibited cardinal points, North and West..

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The story-line given is based broadly on the description given in Vishnu Puranam.. Minor variations might be seen in the descriptions available in other texts.. But the Characters Indra, Diti, Maruts, sleeping of Diti, butchering of Ditis embryo by Indra.. all these are common factors..