Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 6.6.9

6.6.9

Some Pendets explained their doctrine to me in this manner: formerly God appeared in the forms which are mentioned, and in those forms performed all the wonders which have been related. Other Pendets said that the souls of certain great men, whom we are wont to call heroes, had passed into the different bodies spoken of, and that they had become Deutas; or, to speak in the phraseology of the idolaters of old, they had become powerful Divinities, Numina, Genii, and Daemons; or, if you will, Spirits and Fairies; for I know not how else to render the word Deuta; but this second explanation comes much to the same thing as the first, inasmuch as the Indous believe that their souls are constituent parts of the deity.