Asur
/ˈɑː.sʊər/noun
A member of the Asur Indigenous community of India, or a variant transliteration of the Sanskrit term Asura.
Did you know?In early Sanskrit and Iranian religious language, the related terms Asura and Ahura referred to powerful divine beings, but later Hindu tradition increasingly used Asura for adversaries of the gods.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₂ensu-ro-
“Reconstructed term meaning something like “belonging to a lord” or “powerful one”; the exact form and sense remain scholarly reconstructions.”
Vedic Sanskrit
Sanskrit
ásura
“A powerful lord or divine being; in the oldest Vedic usage, not yet simply an evil demon.”
Avestan
Avestan
ahura
“Lord or divine being, as in Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity of Zoroastrianism.”
Classical Sanskrit
Sanskrit
asura
“A class of supernatural beings increasingly portrayed in Hindu literature as opponents of the devas, or gods.”
Modern English usage
English
Asur
“A transliteration used for the mythological Asura and for the Asur Indigenous community of India; the community’s name is commonly associated with the Sanskrit term, though identity-origin interpretations are debated.”