Epic Mythology c4.s2.1.2

c4.s2.1.2

3, 285, 1, Piśācakṣudrarakṣasas commingling as one group). An Asura called Daṁśa (12, 3, 15 f.) is cursed by a saint to be reborn in the hellish state of a blood-drinking octopod. On being released from the curse he appears not as an “Asura” but as a red Rākṣasa riding on a cloud (Alarka, as he is called when a “pig-shaped worm with eight feet”, is the name of a mad king of Benares, 3, 25, 13; 14, 30, 2). The Nāgas, though distinct from Asuras, are as a group affiliated, living with them and fighting on their side. The “roaring Asuras” are thus found in battle beside the Rākṣasas and Nāgas as opposed to the orthodox side of Kṛṣṇa and the Fire-god at Khāṇḍava (1, 227, 24 f.; see also below), and generally the Asuras and Nāgas belong together, though numerous exceptions occur in the case of the Nāgas (§ 13). Between the groups of Asuras the poets did not distinguish very carefully. Thus Danur nāma Diteḥ putraḥ describes the Kabandha of R 4, 4, 15, who, again (ib. 3, 70, 5 and 10) is Rākṣasa as well as Asura. Whether, like the Nāgas mentioned as kings (2, 8, 24) and the Piśācas mentioned as a tribe, with Kaliṅgas, etc. (6, 87, 8), the Asuras are euhemerised native races, must be left, from epic evidence, undetermined (see below). To the poets they are great spirits. They do not roam about battle-fields gorging themselves with blood and fat, as do the Piśācas (and Rākṣasas, e. g. 6, 86, 45).