Danavas
Kasyapa Prajapati created a Nighantu or dictionary of synonyms. Yaska wrote a commentary or bhasyam on this nighantu and that is called the niruktham. (Yaska’s Niruktha – Etymyology in Sanskrit).
He married the daughters of Daksha Prajapathi, Aditi and Diti whose children were the AdityAs and the daityAs respectively.
The Valmiki Ramayanam also tells us that kas’yapa had many other wives.
It tells us that the sons of his wife danu, also a daughter of dakSa, were the dAnavAs. The dAnavAs are thus not daityAs nor were they rAkSAsAs. That is a confusion made in more recent times.
As the children of a rSi and the daughter of a rSi, the dAnavAs were also genetically human, and step-brothers of the AdityAs and the daityAs.
A famous dAnava is maya, the father-in-law of Ravana रावण and the author of the Surya Siddhantam. However in the Uttarakanda of Ramayana, Maya is also described as Diti’s son (a Daitya and as the king of the Daityas).
maya dAnava is also called mayAsura or the mighty maya.
He is thus a step-brother of Indra!
Read maya’s story here : Maya Danava (Maya Asura)
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