Since years, I have been pondering the meaning of „asura“. I found a lot of answers in dictionaries and Internet, however not very satisfactory, often contradictory. That’s why I decided to relegate those asuras somewhere into the very dark recesses of my mind and pretend I don’t need to know … However, the word does come up occasionally. I came across an article on the bhavachakra, and it hit me unpleasantly that these asuras should not be done away with by me, since one whole realm of only six is inhabited by them. So what are they and why are they so important as to have a whole bhavachakra realm to themselves?
2 Likes
An interesting historical note is that in the old Iranian tradition the asuras are the good guys and their word for deva represents the ‘fallen angels’. While in the Indian traditions it is the other way around. In the older Rg Veda no division is made between angels and fallen angels.
In the later descendant languages and religions, *Hásuras has become opposed to *daywás . So in the Iranian tradition, the reflexes of *Hásuras are used positively, while those of *daywás come to mean “demon, devil”. The opposite is true in the later Hindu tradition, but in its earliest source, the Rig Veda, both words are used interchangeably to refer to divinities, as is also the case with the Germanic cognates *ansuz and *tīwaz .
5 Likes
I’ve noticed that Bhante Sujato consistently translates asura as “titan,” and several references in the suttas to a war between the devas and asuras (which the devas won) map neatly to the similar western (Greek, etc) mythology about the war between the gods and the titans (the Titanomachy), which the gods won.
If this harks back to a common original mythology among the horse-and-cow people of the Caspian steppes a couple of millennia earlier, it just goes to show that it can evolve into very different stories, as with @Danny’s example of the very different Iranian version, and let’s not even get started on how this maps to Norse mythology.
I don’t think the asuras are really all that important, but they’re a very ancient element of the common religious background of the people the Buddha was teaching among, so they’re “important” that way.
2 Likes
I think the first two asura were Mitra and Varuna, offspring of the archaic Goddess Aditi. They are “atmospheric” gods, belonging to the middle layer of the cosmos. Mitra is thought to be a solar god and Varuna is god of horizons, the guy who carved the lines of the world. For instance, he carved the path in the sky that the sun follows. Together they constitute “law.” Eventually the asura came to number 12, I think, with the last being Indra who tore open Aditi’s womb, thus destroying it.
1 Like
This may be a tangent and, if so,I apologize. But It might put things in perspective.
1 Like
I think SN56.41 might be of interest:
Once upon a time, a battle was fought between the gods and the titans.
In that battle the gods won and the titans lost.
The defeated and terrified titans entered the citadel of the titans through the lotus stalk only to confuse the gods.
A simple look at Buddhist cosmology can shed an interesting light on what the sutta possibly means. The Asuras, being difficult to place in Buddhist cosmology, comes as a provider of universal symmetries and greater order. For example, having them in the lower realms makes the elements a regularity that differentiates different lokas through sequence. The Apaya would represent hell (fire), Animals (earth), ghosts (air) and asuras (water - they dwell in the oceans). In kama loka the sequence is earth-water-fire-air and in rupa and arupa lokas it is water-earth-fire-air.
Another convenience in having them in Buddhist cosmology is that the 31 realms of existence resembles the 31 body parts, and when doubled, it represents the 62 views that represent Brahamajala as per DN1.
So, winning the battle by the devas came at an expense, which is their love for order that led to their confusion, hence SN56.41 comes with a warning: do not speculate about the world.
Thank you all for the really interesting replies! Though somehow it’s still not easy to understand.
I would recommend this excellent source for your study
cosmo.pdf (14.8 MB)
search under “Asuras”
1 Like
That looks great, thank you!
That’s also very interesting, thank you!