ASURA

Iranian ahura in Hindu mythology, a class of titans or demons, the enemies of the gods and of men. In the Vedic age the asuras and the devas were both considered classes of gods, but gradually the two groups came to oppose each other, a development that was reversed in Iran. (There asura, or ahura, came to mean the supreme god and the devas, or daevas, became demons.) In Hindu mythology, the asuras and the devas together churned the milky ocean, in order to extract from it the amrta, the elixir of immortality. Strife arose over the possession of the amrta, a conflict that is never ending. See also deva.