The Hindu Demons

The Hindu demons are perhaps the most awesome of all and must be driven off by dancers wearing the most horrifying masks.

The serpent Vritra is the enemy of the gods, Yama the king of death (with his 2 dogs dragging off dying humanity), and Ravana is the Demon King served by terrifying rakshasas. The god of wealth, Kubera, is attended by demons both male (yakshas) and female (yakshinis).

In Hindu belief, an asura ('breath,' or even 'not god') is a divinity. In the oldest part of the Rig-Veda the word is tantamount to 'Supreme Deity,' just as Ahura is the god of the Zoroastrians.

Later asura came to mean not divinity but demon and the Brahmans speak of contests between the wicked asuras and the good gods.

Azuras came, it is said, from the breath of Pajapati (or from his belly when he became pregnant), who was the origin of 'gods, men, fathers, Gandharvas, and Apsarases' from water; the bad creatures may be from drops of water spilled. Likewise we may more or less accidentally have got the Rakshasas and Pisachas.

Manu, father of men, says the asuras derive from 'Prajapati's groin.' Vishnu Purana says they came from the groin of Brahma.

The origins of these evil creatures is, as you see, debated. In any case, asuras now is a term that covers 'the enemies of the gods, including the Rakhasas descended from Pulastya.'

Let us start with Kasyapa. He was a Vedic sage who did much creation, both of hymns and creatures. Grandson of Brahma, father of Vishnu, grandfather of Manu, the progenitor of all mankind. That's Kasyapa. By Diti, Kasyapa gave birth to the Daityas, unpleasant demons who were kratudwishas (spoilers of sacrifices); they had to be defeated by the good gods. These Daityas are hardly distinguishable from other creatures fathered by Kasyapa, called Danavas, also demons.

Then there are Darbas (Tearers), destructive demons. And Rakshasas (Guardians), descended from either the sage Pulastya or (in another story) from the foot of Brahma. These Rakshasas are goblins and ghouls. They can be titans or smaller but they all haunt cemeteries, disturb sacrifices, animate corpses, devour people, harass the devout, and spread disease and disorder. Some scholars have suggested that they represent the barbarian peoples whom the Aryans first encountered, then defeated.

The Hindus have many devils and demons and, as with the Judeo-Christian tradition, there are questions about their origins but a common explanation is that they were first good and later bad (like the fallen angels).