The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c13.s2.33

v1.c13.s2.33

When, however, we pass from the world of heaven to the world of demons the situation is changed. If the Indian believed in and worshipped gods of light and nature, he was doubtless in deep fear of countless demons who threatened men with every kind of evil, and who had to be combated even by the gods. In but few cases is it possible to reduce these demons to a certain natural foundation: the Gandharvas, who in the later Vedic tradition have a somewhat hostile appearance, are probable cases of derivation from a natural basis, and the greater enemies of the gods, such as Vṛtra, are doubtless naturalistic in origin. But this is not the case with many of the demons of the Veda, and it is a natural and probable conjecture³ which sees in them conceptions based on the idea of hostile souls of the dead: it is easy to imagine that disease and troubles which fall to the share of man can be deemed to be produced by the souls of the hostile dead, and, once the concept of souls causing misfortune was arrived at, the same principle of creative activity, which has been seen at work in the making of new forms of gods, would generalize the conception of spirits which brought misfortune.