264 
famous of native commentators on the Veda , is by no means 
to be relied on in the matter.* * * § Thus we read f : — 
“ This soma J is to be distributed as an offering among 
the Asuras” (Haug). 
“ This soma is to be offered by us for the divine beings ” 
(Muir) . 
Here the Asuras are simply'- the gods. And the title Asura is 
also applied to some of the principal divinities separately; 
to Indra,§ Agni,|| S a vitriol to the divine diad Yaruna and 
Mitra,** * * §§ but especially to Varuna, ft the archaic head and 
chief of Yedic divinities, and whom we meet with in the west 
as Ouranos, so that he was known to the undivided Aryan 
family. Thus investigation discloses that the name Ahura, 
in the form Asura, was originally used in a good sense, alike 
in India and in Iran, and in both countries was especially 
applied to the supreme divinity. This name and concept 
were, therefore, the common property of the Eastern Aryans 
ere their separation into Iranian and Indian. But the term 
can be carried still further back, for we find it in the Aesir,JJ 
the general name for the gods of the Teutons and Scandi- 
navians, and in the Erse and Etruscan gEsar ; §§ and hence it 
was the common property of the united Aryan race, their 
ancient and venerable appellation of the Supreme. 
Next, what is its meaning ? Connected with the Yedic 
asu, ‘ breath/ ‘ life,’ Asura is “ the Living,” the living God, 
the Spiritual, and, more generally, “ the Divine,” as opposed 
to the Human. The God of Zarathustra Ahuro mazdao, 
* “ Sayana represents the tradition of India” (Prof. Miiller, Rig-Veda- 
Sanhita, Preface, xv.), and “in many cases teaches us how the Veda ought 
not to be understood ” (Ibid. ix.). 
f Rig-Veda, I. cviii. 6 : “ Somo asurair.” 
| The Soma-juice, supposed to have been obtained from the plant Ascle- 
pias (vide Wilson, Rig-Veda-Sanhita, i. 6; Canon Rawlinson, Ancient 
Monarchies, ii. 329). 
§ Rig-Veda, I. liv. 3. || Ibid. IV. ii. 5. IT Ibid. I. xxxv. 7. 
** Ibid. VII. xxxvi. 2 ; VIII. xxv. 4. 
ft Ibid. L.xxiv. 14. Here Wilson, under the influence of Sayana, 
renders Asura “ averter of misfortune ” ; adding “ It is an unusual sense of 
the word, but it would scarcely be decorous (!) to call Varuna an asura.” 
( Vide also Muir, Sanskrit Texts, v . 61.) M. Darmesteter remarks, “ Varuna 
est le dieu le plus frequemment design 6 sous le nom d’Asura ” (Ormaxd et 
Ahriman, 47). 
JI The original form of the word is ansu (vide Tiele, Outlines of the 
History of the Ancient Religions, 190 ; Darmesteter, Ormazd et Ahriman, 
47, note 4). 
§§ “ According to Suetonius, iESAR was an Etruscan word which meant 
‘God.' Alsar also means ‘God’ in Erse” (Rev. Isaac Taylor, Etruscan 
Researches, 144). “ Aisar means ‘ gods ’ or ‘spirits ’ ” (Ibid. 293). 
