Angels-ASURA

Asura is a southern Asian term for “demon,” the
closest thing that Hinduism has to a fallen
angel. In the Vedas, India’s earliest recoverable
religious texts, the term asura is used interchangeably with the word
deva, both of which refer to the gods and goddesses of the Vedic pantheon.
By the time of the epics—the Ramayana and the Mahabharata—
asura had come to mean “demon,” and deva had come to mean
“divine.” In the new pantheon of classical Hinduism, the old Vedic
gods were demoted to the status of demigods (the devas) and occasionally
perform functions that Westerners often view as angel-like.
In classical Hindu mythology as embodied in the Puranas, the
devas and the asuras are locked in ongoing conflict. Whereas the
legions of the Judeo-Christian Satan failed to take over heaven in
their original rebellion and were cast into hell, in southern Asian
mythology the asuras often storm out of the underworld, succeed in
taking over heaven, and drive the devas out. The devas then appeal to
the high god (usually Vishnu, though occasionally Shiva or the Goddess),
who appears and defeats the asuras, driving them back into the
hell worlds, and reestablishing the deva/asura balance of power.
One element of Hinduism that distinguishes it from Western religions
is the notion of reincarnation. As this notion was brought to
bear on southern Asian mythology, devas became capable of ignoble actions that could result in their punishment (their “fall”) by being
reborn as asuras. Similarly, and unlike Western demons, asuras developed
the capacity to perform noble actions, which could result in the
reward of being reborn as devas.