Vedic Mythology c8.1

c8.1

§ 67. A. Asuras. — Opposed to the beneficent gods is a body of malevolent beings called by various designations. Asura is throughout the Vedic literature the name of the celestial demons who are regarded as the regular adversaries of the gods in their mythical conflicts and who only rarely appear as present foes of men (e. g. AV. 8, 65; KS. 87¹⁶; 88¹). The term, however, occurs only a few times in the RV. with the later sense of demon. It is there found only four times in the plural with this meaning. Indra is invoked to scatter the godless Asuras (8, 85⁹). Otherwise they are only mentioned in the tenth book, always as opposed to the gods in general. The gods, it is said, smote the Asuras (10, 157⁴). Agni promises to devise a hymn by which the gods may vanquish the Asuras (10, 53⁴). The gods are even said to have placed faith in the formidable Asuras (10, 151³). The word also occurs three times as the designation of an individual demon. Bṛhaspati is besought to pierce with a burning stone the heroes of the wolfish Asura (2, 30⁴). Indra shattered the forts of the crafty Asura Pipru (10, 138³) and Indra-Viṣṇu smote the 100000 heroes of the Asura Varcin (7, 99⁵). The sense of ‘demon’ is also found in the epithet *asurahan*, ‘Asura-slayer’, which occurs three times and is applied to Indra (6, 22⁴), to Agni (7, 13¹), and to the Sun (10, 170²). The older Rigvedic notion of the conflict of a single god with a single demon, mainly exemplified by Indra and Vṛtra, gradually developed into that of the gods and the Asuras in general being arrayed against each other in two hostile camps. This is the regular view of the Brāhmaṇas. A new and frequent feature of the conflicts constantly described in these works is that the gods are worsted at the outset and only win by artifice. The most notable illustration of this notion is the myth of Viṣṇu taking his three strides in the form of a dwarf on behalf of the gods¹.