Daeva

Daeva, the Iranian language term, shares the same origin of "Deva" of Hinduism, which is a cognate with Latin deus ("god") and Greek Zeus.

Equivalents for Avestan daeva in Iranian languages include Pashto, Balochi, Kurdish dêw, Persian dīv/deev.

[1] The Iranian word was borrowed by Old Armenian as dew, Georgian as devi, Urdu as deo, and Turkish as dev [2] with the same negative associations in those languages.

In English, the word appears as daeva, div, deev, and in the 18th century fantasy novels of William Thomas Beckford as dive.

The Vedic Sanskrit cognate of Avestan daēuua is devá-, continuing in later Indo-Aryan languages as dev.

This "fundamental fact of Iranian linguistics" is "impossible" to reconcile with the testimony of the Gathas, where the daevas, though rejected, were still evidently gods that continued to have a following.

It assumes that the development was gradual, and that a general distrust of the daevas already existed by the time the Gathas were composed.

[citation needed] While in the post-Rigvedic Indic texts the conflict between the two groups of devas and asuras is a primary theme, this is not a theme in either the Rigveda nor in the Iranian texts,[citation needed] ..."returning I protect the kingdom which awaits me" (from asuras)and therefore cannot have been a feature of a common heritage.

The use of Asura in the Rigveda is unsystematic and inconsistent and "it can hardly be said to confirm the existence of a category of gods opposed to the devas".

[4] The view popularized by Nyberg,[10] Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin,[11] and Widengren[12] of a prehistorical opposition of *asura/daiva involves "interminable and entirely conjectural discussions" on the status of various Indo-Iranian entities that in one culture are asuras/ahuras and in the other are devas/daevas (see examples in the Younger Avesta, below).

In the Gathas, daevas are censured as being incapable of discerning truth (asha-) from falsehood (druj-).

Like the daevas that they follow, "the Usij are known throughout the seventh region of the earth as the offspring of aka mainyu, druj, and arrogance.

[17] In the Middle Persian texts of Zoroastrian tradition, the dews are invariably rendered with the Aramaic ideogram ŠDYA or the more common plural ŠDYAʼn that signified "demons" even in the singular.

Dews play a crucial role in the cosmogonic drama of the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian view of creation completed in the 12th century.

Mirroring the task of the Amesha Spentas through which Ahura Mazda realized creation, the six antitheses are the instrument through which Angra Mainyu creates all the horrors in the world.

One interpretation of the Denkard proposes that the dews were perceived to be non-existent physically (that is, they were considered non-ontological) but present psychologically.

With fundamental optimism,[20][21] the texts describe how the dews may be kept in check, ranging from cursing them to the active participation in life through good thoughts, words and deeds.

Adur) is an effective weapon against the dews, and keeping a hearth fire burning is a means to protect the home.

In the 9th century rivayats (65.14), the demons are described as issuing out at night to wreak mayhem, but forced back into the underworld by the divine glory (khvarenah) at sunrise.

(Bundahishn XXVII.51) Other entities include: The most destructive of these are Astiwihad, the demon of death that casts the noose of mortality around men's necks at birth, and Az, who is most capable of destroying the "innate wisdom" of man.

A list of ten demons is provided in the Shahnameh:[24] Besides the afore-mentioned Az "greed", Kashm "wrath" (Avestan Aeshma), Nang "dishonor", Niaz "want", and Rashk "envy", the epic poem includes Kin "vengeance", Nammam "tell-tale", Do-ruy "two-face", napak-din "heresy", and (not explicitly named) ungratefulness.

Although Ferdowsi generally portrays divs as being distinct from humans, the poet also uses the word to denote "evil people".