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Rh one type of the demons. They have the shape of dogs, vultures, owls, and other birds; appropriating the form of husband, brother, or lover, they approach women with evil intent; they eat the flesh of men and horses and suck the milk of cows. Their particular time of power is the evening and above all else they detest sacrifice and prayer. Agni, the Fire, is especially besought to drive them away and destroy them, and hence wins his title of "Slayer of Rakṣases." With the Rakṣases in later literature rank the Piśācas as foes of the fathers, precisely as the Asuras are the enemies of the gods and the Rakṣases of men, but the Ṛgveda knows only the yellow-peaked, watery Piśāci, whom Indra is invoked to crush. Other hostile spirits are the Arātis ("Illiberalities"), the Druhs ("Injurious"), and the Kimīdins, who are goblins conceived as in pairs.

There is no fixed terminology in the description of individual demons, so that Pipru and Varcin pass both as Asuras and as Dāsas. By far the greatest of the demons is the serpent Vṛtra, footless and handless, the snorter, the child of Dānu, "the stream," the encompasser of the waters, which are freed when Indra slays him. There are many Vṛtras, however, and the name applies to earthly as well as to celestial foes. Vala ranks next as an enemy of Indra: he is the personification of the cave in which the cows are kept, and which Indra pierces or cleaves to free the kine. Arbuda again was deprived of his cows by Indra, who trod him underfoot and cleft his head, and he seems but a form of Vṛtra. More doubtful is the three-headed son of Tvaṣṭṛ, Viśvarūpa ("Multiform"), who is slain by Indra with the aid of Trita, and whose cows, are taken. In his figure some scholars have seen the moon, but his personality is too shadowy to allow of any clear result. The overthrowing of the demon Svarbhānu is accomplished by Indra, while Atri replaces in the sky the eye of the sun which that demon had eclipsed. The Dāsa Suṣṇa figures as a prominent foe of Kutsa, a protégé of Indra, but his mythical character is attested by the fact that by overcoming him Indra wins the waters, finds the cows, and