The ancient Mother is mother earth as the description that precedes and follows it shows. It is surely not referring to Savitri who is right now the young bride and a partial incarnation of the Divine Mother. The Divine Mother is referred to generally as the Eternal Mother rather than the Ancient Mother.
Savitri is the child who is being referred to here. In a more mystic sense the ancient mother is the material world of which earth is a condensation. The child is the psychic being if we use the Vedic image. But the straight and direct meaning earth is the ancient mother and Savitri is the child. Mother earth is fondly clutching her favourite child Savitri as if to make her forget change and death. This is the effect of earth in its spaces where the pace of life is slow and the purity is preserved.
