The distance between gods and heroes in Purânic mythology was not very great. Divine weapons, like the Gândîva, the great bow of Brahmâ, could be given to mere mortals, since the mortals were so often partial divine incarnations or from mixed marriages between gods and mortal women.***
In most Hindu myths, evil is the fault of the gods, a result of the gods’
malevolence against virtuous demons and virtuous men. ... In early myths, demons are purposely left unredeemed, demonic, to maintain a force of evil and distinguish them from gods
***
The Brahmanas present many examples of the beginning of the second stage of
religion-that the gods fear or simply dislike men. The gods secrete themselves
from men or withdraw from them in pique:
When gods and men lived together in the world, men kept asking the gods for all that they lacked\ saying, "We don’t have this. Let us have it” The gods began to hate all these
demands, and they vanished.
The gods want to keep heaven as a private club for themselves, and this is tantamount to keeping men on earth or in hell. One Brahmana text states that the need for a distinction first caused the gods to seek immortality: "At first, the gods were like men. They wished to dispel need, evil, and death, and to reach the place of the gods. And they did .” Evil and death leave the gods—and enter mankind.
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