Vedic Mythology c8.s3.14

c8.s3.14

The nature of the spirits which surround the everyday life of man consists in injury, and that of their various species in a particular kind of injury usually indicated by their names. They are as a whole unconnected with phenomena or forces of nature, seeming partly at least to be derived from the spirits of dead enemies¹⁴. Less personal than the demons mentioned above and probably due to a more advanced order of thought, are the hostile powers which are conceived as a kind of impalpable substance of disease, childlessness, guilt, and so forth, which flying about in the air produce infection, and to deflect which to enemies is one of the chief tasks of sorcery¹⁵.