Daivers and Daivergoel
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
Hindoo genii inhabiting the Daiver- Logum, a world of their own. They are, it seems, related to the Persian divs, from which it is suggested that the word "devil" is derived. They possess material bodies as well as spiritual, and have many human attributes, both good and evil. Their king is called Daivuntren, or Indiren, his wife Inderannee, and his son Seedcra-hudderen. The latter records the actions of human beings, by which they must at last be judged. In Daivuntren's immense court of audience there is room not only for the daivers themselves, but for a multitude of attendants, or companions. These are the kuinarer, the musicians of Daiver-Logum ; Dumbarim, Nardir, the drummers; Kimprusher, winged beings of great beauty, who wait on the daivers; Kundagaindoorer, similar beings, the messengers of Vishnu ; Paunner, the jugglers; Viddiaser, the bards; Tsettee, those beings who attend them in their aerial flights; Kannanader, or Dordanks, the messengers who lead devotees of Shiva and Vishnu to paradise, and the wicked to hell. There is yet another class of daivergoel, or genii, which comprises the eight keepers of the eight sides of the world, known by their general name of Aushtatiken-Pauligaur. These are Indiren, or Daivuntren, their king; Augne- Bangauven, god of fire; Eemen, king of death and hell; Nerudee, the earth-element personified as a giant; Vaivoo, Danaans god of the air and winds; Varooner, god of the clouds and rain; Gooberen, god of riches; and Essaunien, Shiva himself, in one of his 1,008 incarnations.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Spence's Encyclopaedia of Occultism printed this in 1920 he was recycling garbled transliterations from eighteenth-century travellers' accounts: "daivers" are simply the devas of Hinduism, "Daiver-Logum" is Devaloka, and the king "Daivuntren, or Indiren" and his wife "Inderannee" are Indra and Indrani. Standard scholarly transliteration since the twentieth century gives the eight "Aushtatiken-Pauligaur" as the Ashta-Dikpalas — Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirriti, Vayu, Varuna, Kubera and Ishana — and the attendant classes as kinnaras, vidyadharas and the rest, figures of mainstream Hindu cosmology rather than the occult curiosities the entry implies. The suggested derivation of "devil" from Persian div is no longer accepted: English devil comes through Latin diabolus from Greek diabolos, though Sanskrit deva and Avestan daeva are indeed the same word, one meaning a god and the other, in Zoroastrian usage, a demon.
Written for this edition, 2026.