[little jeremiah]

Another way of understanding, for instance, the Mahabharat would be to take it at face value - i.e. literally. In that case, the warring clans and alliances of the Kurukshetra War did not evolve (in understanding) into devas and asuras, but in addition to the alliances described, higher beings called devas and asuras exist simultaneously.

[Cronos]

Higher beings exist simultaneously? I kind of disagree with that as most primitive gods do tend to have been originally men elevated to divine status because of their deeds (think Gilgamesh, Heracles etc.). Indra must have been a chieftain or a line of chieftains taking that name, similar to what happened in Egypt with the house of Osiris and Amun-Ra.

Similarly Rama of the Ramayana is quite clearly a human hero, elevated to Godhood because of his deeds. We see the same thing happening to the Buddha even though he insisted that he was not divine.