DEVA, DEWA, in the Zoroastrian mythology the Devs were demons or evil spirits, but in the Indian Vedas, deva means a god, from Sanskr. div, "sky." In later Hindu, Buddhist and Jain literature the term denoted a god, demi-god or spirit.
See A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology; E. W. Hopkins, Epic Mythology.