Eight Legions
The Eight Legions are a group of Buddhist deities whose function is to protect the Dharma. These beings are common among the audience addressed by the Buddha in Mahāyāna sūtras, making appearances in such scriptures as the Lotus Sutra and the Golden Light Sutra. They are also referred to as the "Eight Legions of Devas and Nāgas".
Asuras are also listed here as protectors of Dharma in the same sense as demigods are referred as "asuratvam" in Rigvedic "Hymn to all gods" where devas are related to "asuras". Related word "ahura" in Zoroastrianism also means "god".
Etymology
The name is composed of two Sanskrit terms.means eight, with connections to the Latin octo and the Persian . means legion, but can be rendered army, general, warrior and the like. Yet for the sake of accuracy contrary to the custom, each legion has a unique standard/banner and is composed just of several thousand foot soldiers. For that size of a military unit there is a fitting Sanskrit term "Dhvajinī", i.e. "body of troops bearing a standard". "Sena" is better to translate as "army" due to the fact that enormous Kuru and Pāṇḍava troops that gathered on the battlefield were called "kurupāṇḍava-sena", and more than that, all wars in India are patronized by the god of war Kārtikeya who probably plays both sides in any conflict if adversary combatants worship devas. His wife's name is Sena, a goddess, commonly known as Deva-Sena, the personified armament of the gods. There were plenty of legions in India serving various kings and lords, but all military forces as a whole could be figuratively named an army, i.e. "Sena" - the Shakti through which the god of war imposed his will.
Summary
The Eight Legions have their origins in ancient India as gods who belong to several domains. Many of these gods are among those spirits who are found in the lower heavens of Cāturmahārājakāyika and the Asura realm, and as such largely consist of nature spirits.While the list of figures within this category vary, the most common are as follows:
Variations
At Kōfuku-ji in Nara, Japan, there is a famous group of statues that represent the Eight Legions. Some of these figures differ from the common list. Their names in Japanese are as follows:There is another list of eight beings, the, who belong to an overlapping, but distinct category.