265 
“ the Ahura wlio is called Mazdao,” is “the Wise-living- 
spirit,” or perhaps rather, “the Living- Creator.” * * * § 
12. The Devas and the Deva-cult. 
Such being the god of “ the Ahuryan religion,” let us next 
consider the Devas and their cult. The important root dyu, 
meaning primarily ( to spring/ and hence f to shine forth/ 
has become the parent of a whole tribe of famous words, e.g., 
Dyaus, a Yedic name for the god of the gleaming heaven, 
the father; called Dyaus-pitar, the Greek Zeus-pater, and 
Latin Ju-piter and Janus Pater. Juno, Dianus, Diana, 
are other connected names ; as is the German Tiu, which 
survives in Tues-day. Dyu has also supplied the general 
name for God or gods, cleva, theos, deus, divus, i.e. “the 
Bright;” so, conversely, the Yedic a-deva is a-theos, or 
‘’god-less/ The Devas are, therefore, “the Bright-ones,” 
the divinities of the morning, the dawn, the day, the lighted 
and gleaming firmament. So we find the dictum, — 
“ The evening is not for the gods ; it is unacceptable to 
them.” f 
Deva, therefore, like asura, was originally a good epithet 
amongst the Aryans ; and has continued to be so in India, 
Greece, and Italy. But just as the Hindu Aryan degraded 
the latter term, so the Iranian Aryan degraded the former ; 
and in the Gathas and throughout the Avesta it is applied to 
false gods and hostile demons, and at length appears in the 
late Persian form div,% meaning a fiend or evil spirit. The 
name Vendidad signifies, as noticed, “ the Law against the 
Devas;” and from the Zarathustrian standpoint Aryan India 
is pre-eminently “ the country of the wicked Deva-worskip- 
ping men.”§ Now, whatever the Aryan religion in India 
may have been originally, it undoubtedly at a certain period 
was, or became, polytheistic ; and it will be observed that 
* “ Mazdao . . . the Vedic rnedhds, ‘wise’; or when applied to priests, 
‘ skilful, able to make everything ’ ” (Haug, Essays, 301). Prof. Muller and 
Penfey agree in this connection ( vide Muir, Sanskrit Texts, v. 120, note). 
M. Darmesteter prefers to derive Ahura from an Iranian word, aim, 
“ master,” form of an Indo-Iranian asu, with which he compares the Greek 
it>Q ; Ahuramazda would thus signify “ the Very-wise Lord.” The Rev. 
K. M. Banerjea takes a bolder flight, and confidently connects Asura with 
Asur, remarking “The name Ahura Mazda was derived from ‘ Asur,’ the 
Assyrian term for god or lord ” ( The Arian Witness , Preface, xi. Calcutta, 
1875). t Rig -Veda, V. lxxvii. 2. 
X Prof. Muller has elaborately traced the forms of the root dyu, such as 
div, dev, ddiv, etc. ( Lectures on the Science of Language, ii. 493.) 
§ Vendidad, xix. 29. 
