In
Hinduism, the
Asura (
Sanskrit ????) are a group of power-seeking deities, sometimes referred to as
demons or sinful. They were opposed to the
Devas. Both groups are children of
Kasyapa. The views of Asuras in
Hinduism vary due to the many deities who were Asuras then later became known as
Devas. The name is cognate to
Ahura—indeed, the
Oxford English Dictionary recognizes the use of the term in reference to
Zoroastrianism, where "
Ahura" would perhaps be more appropriate—and
Æsir, which implies a common
Proto-Indo-European origin for the Asura and the Æsir. In entry 48 of his
Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch,
Julius Pokorny reconstructs this common origin as *
ansu-.
The negative character of the Asura in Hinduism seems to have evolved over time. In general, the earliest texts have the Asuras presiding over moral and social phenomena (e.g. Varuna, the guardian of ?tá, or Bhaga, the patron of marriages) and the Devas presiding over natural phenomena (e.g. Ushas, whose name means "dawn", or Indra, a weather God).
In later writings, such as the Puranas and Itihasas, we find that the "Devas" are the Godly beings and the "Asuras" the demonic ones. According to the Bhagavad Gita (16.6), all beings in the Universe partake either of the divine qualities (Daivi Sampad) or the demonic qualities (Asuri Sampad). The sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita describes the divine qualities briefly and the demonic qualities at length. In summary, the Gita (16.4) says that the Asuric qualities are pride, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, and ignorance.
The Padma Purana says that the devotees of Vishnu are endowed with the divine qualities (vi??u-bhakta? sm?to daiva) whereas the Asuras are just the opposite (asuras tad-viparyaya?).
