Bestiary.us

Six thousand years ago, in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, there lived a people known to linguists and archaeologists as the Proto-Indo-Europeans. They were sheep and cattle herders, probably nomadic, which is why they left few archaeological sites. They had no written script, so we cannot directly read their stories. But the language they spoke is the progenitor from which over four hundred modern languages evolved — everything from Assamese to Sinhala to Gujarati to Greek to Gaelic.

By fitting together clues from these latter-day descendants, some bits of the ancient language and culture can be reconstructed. Among the Proto-Indo-European words the linguists are surest of is the name of a god, Dyeus, the Sky-Father. The name of this powerful deity became Zeus in Greek, Deus in Latin, deva and devata in Sanskrit; it is the root of the English word “deity” itself, as well as “devil”. It has been borrowed into Dravidian languages too, becoming theyyam (“spirit”) in Malayalam and Deyyam (“ghost”) in Telugu.

In Avestan, the ancient Iranian language of Zoroastrian scripture, the word became Daeva; and in later Persian, this evolved to Dev.

In Zoroastrianism, the Devs are a class of demonic giants or “rejected gods”. They were created by Angra Mainyu, the destructive spirit and principle of evil, from the demonic essence, to battle the Yazatas or angels of Ahura Mazda.

There are six arch-Devs:

• Akoman, the Dev of evil intent.
• Indar, the Dev who constrains virtuous thought.
• Savar, the Dev of corruption, lawlessness, and drunkenness.
• Naikiyas, the Dev of discontent.
• Taprev, the Dev of thirst, fever, and destruction.
• Zairich, the Dev of poison.

Ahriman also created countless other Devs who fly out from hell every night to cause torment. The names of some of these lesser Devs are:

• Jeh, the Dev of lasciviousness, Ahriman’s wife and queen of hell.
• Eshm, the Dev of wrath, who carries a bloody mace.
• Bushasp, the long-armed Dev of sloth and procrastination.
• Taromat, the Dev of disobedience and scorn.
• Mitrokht, the Dev of lies.
• Arashk, the Dev of the evil eye.
• Vizaresh, the Dev who torments the recently-dead.
• Uda, the Dev who attacks people who talk with their mouths full, contaminates their food and water, and makes them incontinent.
• Akatash, the Dev of perversion.
• Zarman, the Dev of old age and decrepitude.
• Chishmak, the Dev of whirlwinds and other disasters.
• Vareno, the Dev of illicit sex.
• Sej, the Dev of annihilation.
• Niyaz, the Dev of poverty and distress.
• Az^*, the Dev of greed and gluttony.
• Nasu, the Dev of contamination.
• Friftar, the Dev of deception.
• Spazg, the Dev of slander.
• Arast, the Dev of falsehood.
• Aighash, the Dev who smites mankind with his eye.
• But, the Dev worshipped by Hindus (see Bhoot).

From Zoroastrian roots, Devs became monstrous ogres in Persian folklore, and eventually found their way into Urdu fantastic literature.

In Urdu stories, they are usually evil. There are a few good ones — in particular, those that have been converted to Islam — but they less likely to be benevolent than Jinns. Devs are often said to be enemies of the Peris. In some folktales, a Dev will keep a beautiful Peri imprisoned in a box, and take it out once in a while to watch it dance.

The average Dev is a bit larger than a human. Powerful ones can be much larger. The strongest Devs are capable of throwing giant boulders weighing up to 100 tonnes. They fight using tree trunks as weapons, and occasionally bludgeon their enemies with giant serpents.

Devs appear frequently in the Hamzanama, the Persian/Urdu epic tale that relates the exploits of the swashbuckling Amir Hamza, an uncle of the Prophet Muhammed ﷺ. The most famous version of this story was produced in India between 1562 and 1577, during the reign of Emperor Akbar, as a 48,000 page illustrated manuscript. In these illustrations, the Devs look similar to the Rakshasas of Hindu mythology. They are humanoid, but with animal features, such as orange skin with leopard spots, shaggy white fur, or bird-like talons on their feet. Sometimes they have protruding fangs or spiraling goat horns.

In a later 1855 version of the Hamzanama by Ghalib Lakhnavi, one Dev is described as being as tall as a tower and having the head of a peacock. Kharchal and Kharpal, two Dev generals who lead an army of ten thousand other Devs, are described as having the features of a donkey: one has donkey ears and the other has a donkey’s nose and face.

The homeland of the Devs is the city of Ahrimanabad, named after the Zoroastrian god of primordial evil. This metropolis is located on Mount Qaf, a mythical mountain on the far side of the world ocean.

In Kashmiri folktales, Devs live underground, and emerge once in a while through caves or sprints or fissures to cause trouble amongst the humans.

They are pretty easy to fool, though. One way to trick this sort of Dev is to show it a box with a small mirror in it. Seeing the reflection and not recognizing it as their own, they will believe that you have defeated another Dev and trapped him in the box. Thus convinced that you are dangerous and powerful, the Dev will run away quickly.

Another usage of the word Dev is common among the tantrik magicians of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Here Devs are captive or co-operative spirits who give the tantriks information. So, for example, if you ask, “When will I get married?”, the tantrik will make a show of listening to someone invisible, and then answer, “Dev says you’ll be married within a year.”