The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.77

v1.c17.77

While the great gods might be conceived at times in animal form, for example Indra or Dyaus as a bull, or the sun as a swift horse, actual direct worship of animals is hardly found in the Rigveda. The drought demon which prevents the rain from falling is conceived as a snake whom Indra crushes, and we hear of the snake of the abyss; but, in striking contrast with later India, no direct worship of the snake attributable to its deadliness occurs. Of totemism, in the sense of the belief in an animal ancestor and the treatment of that animal as sacred and divine, the Rigveda shows not a trace. On the other hand, fetishism is seen in the allusion already quoted to the use of an image of Indra against one's enemies. Analogous to this is the sentiment which deifies the pressing-stones which expressed the Soma, the drum and the weapons of the warrior and the sacrificial post. The chief opponents of the gods are the Asuras, a vague group who bear a name which is the epithet of Varuṇa and must originally have had a good meaning, but which may have been degraded by being associated with the conception of divine cunning applied for evil ends. On a lower plane are the Rakshasas, demons conceived as in animal as well as human shape, who seek to destroy the sacrifice and the sacrificers alike, but whose precise nature cannot be definitely ascertained.