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The
Asuras are generally considered divine beings, who are primarily known
for doing evil, but not always. It might be better to say that the
Asuras are powerful beings who often are opposed to the gods. By the
end of the Vedic period, however, the asuras had attained their more
demonic role.
Certainly
some of the Asuras were quite evil, but some were pious.
They would, at times, even be more powerful than the gods, forcing them
to flee in the face of their power until some way of dealing with them
could be found.
One
of our Visitors Comments that:
A
per Pauranic traditions, Asuras and Devas were step sons of sage Kashyap.
It is also said that in some Suktas of Rigved, perhaps older ones, Asuras
also have been praised. However, in most of the Suktas ( perhaps later
ones) Asuras have been projected as enemies. However, in Puranas Asuras
have been described no less virtuous than Devas. However, they were
too proud and due to that they suffered at the hands of Devas. Further
and curiously enough, Iranians, who are said to be clansmen of Indo
Aryans, worshipped Asur Mazda and depicted Devas as villains.
It
is not clear how this transformation came about. Zarathustra is said
to have propagated the worship of Asur Mazda. However, his idea was
to propagate the worship of one God, instead of worship of many Gods,
as was the practice among Proto Indo-Iranians. Perhaps this was the
practice among Indo-Europeans also. Mittani kings of ancient Iraq also
worshipped Devas. Worship of Devas by Mittani kings proves that the
concept of Devas is older than Asuras.
As
per Indian tradition, Asuras are also called 'Danavas' as their mother's
name was 'Danu'. Both the words that is 'Asura' and 'Danava' are synonyms.
It is interesting to note that we have a very important river 'Danube'
in Europe. This may be a combination of words 'Danu' and 'Aab'. We also
have an European tribe named 'Danes'. Further, there is one more important
branch of Kashyap's family; that is Daityas, sons of 'Dity' the third
wife of Kashyap. We also have a tribe named 'Dutch' in Europe. This
word could either be transformation of Daitya or Dadhichi; an ancient
sage of India. The word Europe also seems to has been derived from the
word 'Aila'( descendents of 'Ila').
In conclusion
I can say that Indian belief needs to be studied in more depth than
presently being done.
Thanks
C.P.Singh
*******
Thank you
C.P.
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