The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c23.s1.1

v1.c23.s1.1

THE enemies of the gods *par excellence* throughout the Yajurveda, the Atharvaveda, and all the subsequent Vedic literature are beings called Asuras, but this connexion can be traced only in the latest parts of the Rigveda and even there but occasionally. In the singular the meaning is found but three times certainly, used of Varcin,¹ Pipru,² and the wolfish Asura;³ a fourth case is very doubtful, and may instead refer to Varuṇa.⁴ In the plural there are at most eight cases, predominantly in the tenth book: in them the gods as a body appear opposed to the Asuras as in the later texts, or Indra scatters them.⁵ The term Āsura is applied also to Namuci, and to Svarbhānu, while Indra, Agni, and the sun are called slayers of Asuras. In the Atharvaveda,⁶ on the other hand, the singular is used in the hostile sense three times, the plural thirty times, and the application of the term to the gods, which is found very occasionally in the later literature,⁷ is confronted with a regular application to the enemies of the gods. In the Rigveda, on the contrary, it is the normal attribute of Varuṇa and, more rarely, of other high gods.