The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c13.s2.43

v1.c13.s2.43

In regard to a third group of evil spirits, the Piçācas, it has been suggested by Sir G. Grierson⁸ that they reflect human enemies, a race of cannibals, of whom traditions prevail throughout the medieval period of India, and whose language was the Paiçācī of the north-west. In principle it is perfectly possible that human enemies may be counted among demons, as well as the souls of human enemies, and it may be noted that the Brāhmaṇa⁹ tradition which opposes the Asuras to the gods, and the Rakṣases to men, also opposes the Piçācas to the Fathers, from which it might be deduced that they were in large measure deemed to be souls of the hostile dead. Nor need we doubt that some of the demons who are defeated by the gods were mere mortal men, the enemies of the singers, for there is no such difficulty in accepting the view that a living man can be deemed an evil spirit as in believing that he can be deemed a god. The rarity of the word Piçāca in the earliest literature is also to be noted, but on the whole it is more probable that the term was in origin applied to demons as spirits, not to an actual tribe of men, whence it came to have its demoniac sense, which is certain in the only instance of its use in the Rigveda.¹