The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c23.s2.38

v1.c23.s2.38

The Arātis, who occur about a dozen times in the Rigveda and frequently later, are clearly abstract deities of illiberality, but clothed with quite a real life in the imagination of the indignant Vedic poet, who asks the gods to overthrow them. The Druhs are found about as often in the Rigveda,⁴ but they are Indo-Iranian, the Avestan being *druj*, and, like all the older conceptions, are not living features of the religion, being merely vaguely conceived as injurious spirits. The Kimīdins as a pair of demons occur already in the Rigveda,⁵ contrary to the more normal practice of grouping the demons in sets, perhaps owing to the influence of the dual deities. The names which we have of such Kimīdins, Mroka and Anumroka, Sarpa and Anusarpa, show, however, their entire distinction from the dual deities which have distinct personalities and quite different appellations.⁶