Daeva

Daeva in Avestan language meaning a spirit, or "a being of shining light", is a term for a particular sort of supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. Equivalents in Iranian languages include Pashto dêw (Uber ghost, demon, giant), Baluchi dêw (giant, monster), Persian dīv (a daemon, genius, an ogre, a giant), Kurdish dêw (giant, monster). The Iranian word was borrowed into Old Armenian as dew, Georgian as devi and Urdu as deo. In the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the daevas are "lower gods" (compare: in Vedas Vishnu is Supreme God, Deva-Dev, and devatas are lower demigods), "wrong gods" or "false gods" or "gods that are (to be) rejected". This meaning is—subject to interpretation—perhaps also evident in the Old Persian 'daiva inscription' of the 5th century BCE. In the Younger Avesta, the daevas are noxious creatures that promote chaos and disorder. In later tradition and folklore, the dēws (Zoroastrian Middle Persian; New Persian divs) are personifications of every imaginable evil.