Elements of Hindu Iconography v4.c35.s2.14

v4.c35.s2.14

The Asuras and Rākṣasas are very old demi-gods. They are often mentioned in the Vēdic period. The Nirukta says that the word *asura* implies a cloud that sprinkles water. The dark mass of cloud was evidently personified into a wicked being which required to be chastened by Indra to pour down rain. The *asuras* are included in the Pañchajana which, according to the Nirukta was composed of the Gandharvas, the Pitṛis, the Dēvas, the Asuras and the Rākṣasas ; but Śāyaṇa enumerates them as the gods, men, serpents, Gandharvas including the Apsarasas and the Pitṛis. From the *Taittirīyasaṃhitā* we learn that the earth once belonged to the *asuras* and the gods had only a very small place on it. The gods asked the *asuras* for more, upon which the *asuras* desired to know how much of the land they would require. The Dēvas replied “as much as this she-jackal can go round in three steps.” The *asuras* consented to grant this request of the Dēvas and Indra assumed for the occasion the form of a she-jackal and stepped round the whole of the earth in three strides. Then again we learn from the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* that the gods became distinguished from the *asuras* under the following circumstances : being the descendants of Prajāpati, they both obtained their father’s inheritance, namely, speech,—true and false; they both spoke truth and falsehood. The gods then abandoned falsehood and took exclusively to truth. As a consequence, the gods became weaker and poorer. The poet admits naively that truth certainly reduces people at first to the conditions mentioned above, but that the gods ultimately became prosperous. The asuras, on the other hand, took to falsehood and indulged solely in it. Truth became in after-times the triple science (trayīvidyā). In other ways also the asuras sank lower in status than their brothers the devas. In striving to attain higher positions, the asuras did not know to whom they should offer their oblations and through presumption went on taking them into their own mouths, whereas the gods offered the oblations to each other. Because of their presumption, the asuras were overcome by the devas. In the Aitihāsic period the Rākshasas are often described as dark, ugly, impure people, addicted to man-eating.