The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c13.s3.1

v1.c13.s3.1

The word Deva undoubtedly denotes a being connected with the heaven, and there can be doubt only regarding the precise sense which had been developed during the Aryan period when the word was common to the Indians and the Iranians to be. Such evidence as there is suggests that the term had already come to be applied generically as a term for the gods of all kinds, though this must remain doubtful. What is clear is that in the use of the Rigveda the word has essentially this sense; the Devas stand out against the demons whether Dāsas, Dasyus, or Rakṣases, while the Brāhmaṇas show the term Asura degraded from its old higher sense and opposed to Deva.⁴ The generic sense of Deva is revealed in the negative Adeva which is opposed to Deva and is used of the demon Vṛtra.⁵ So also we have the terms *mūradeva* used of those who had roots as their gods, and *çiçnadeva* of those who were phallus worshippers.⁶ It is, therefore, clear that the connexion with the heaven had long been lost. That the term Devas when used in the Rigveda and other Vedic literature normally denotes the narrow circle of the sky gods, and that the term Viçve Devās applies to the gods as a whole, in opposition to this narrower group, is a hypothesis ⁷ wholly without plausibility or support. It is absurd to suggest that when gods are opposed to demons the sky gods alone are meant, still more absurd to find them alone designated when gods, fathers, and men are discriminated, and in the Gṛhya ritual when a sacrifice to the gods and one to Bhūtas is found, the two classes, as the enumerations of the Sūtras prove, do not correspond in the slightest degree to a distinction between heavenly gods and others.¹