Asura

Asuras are a class of beings in Indian religions. They are described as power-seeking demons related to the more benevolent Devas (also known as Suras) in Hinduism. In its Buddhist context, the word is translated as "titan", "demigod", or "antigod". According to Hindu scriptures, the asuras are in constant fear of devas.

Quotes

• Iranianist H. Humbach, too, emphasises the same similarity pointing out the polarisation of relations between the Ahuras and the Daevas in the Gathic Avesta and the reverse polarisation between Devas and Asuras which only begins to occur in the later books of the RV; he concludes: “All this suggests a synchrony between the later Vedic period and Zarathustra’s reform in Iran” (1991:23).
  • H. Humbach quoted from Kazanas, N. (2015). Vedic and IndoEuropean studies. Aditya Prakashan. , chapter 4, Vedic and Avestan.

• ...this deva-asura contrast appears only in few late hymns of the RV and in post-rigvedic texts... deva and asura are interchangeable terms in the early and middle strata describing thoroughbred IndoEuropean gods like Mitra, Varuèa and others, including Rudra... These deva/asura deities fight demonic forces, not one another. The asura is ahura ‘god’ and the deva is daeva ‘demon’ in the Iranian Avesta.
  • Kazanas, N. (2009). Indo-Aryan origins and other Vedic issues. Aditya Prakashan. ch. 2

• Do adore with salutations the deva asura[Rudra].
  • Rigveda V, 42, 11.

• Some scholars see a conflict in the RV between devas and asuras corresponding to invading Aryans and retreating natives; but they ignore that on some occasions the two terms are used appositionally as in námobhir devám ásuram duvasya ‘with salutations the deva asura [Rudra] adore’ (V, 42, 11), or in mahàntá mitràváruná/samràjá devàv-ásurá ‘great Mitra-and- Varuna, imperial lords [being] 2 devas-2 asuras’ (VIII, 25,4), or in full semantic identity as in mahád devànám asuratvám ékam ‘great is the single asurahood of the devas’ (III, 55,1ff) or in tà hí devànám ásurá ‘these-two [Mitra and Varuna] asuras of the devas’ (VII, 65,2), etc. Shendge admits, “Looking at the problem statistically, the term Asura is used with good connotations 59/60 times, and 12 times with the connotation of evil, in the Rigveda”; it might be added that the 12 times occur mainly in the later hymns. In later texts asura has the sense ‘demon’.
  • Kazanas, N. D. (2001). Indo-European deities and the Rgveda. JOURNAL OF INDOEUROPEAN STUDIES, 29(3/4), 257-294.