Deva (Hinduism)
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Deva means "shiny", "exalted", "heavenly being", "divine being", "anything of excellence", and is also one of the Sanskrit terms used to indicate a deity in Hinduism. Deva is a masculine term; the feminine equivalent is Devi. The word is a cognate with Latin deus ("god") and Greek Zeus.
In the earliest Vedic literature, Devas are benevolent supernatural beings; above, a gilt-copper statue of Indra, "Chief of the Gods", from 16th-century Nepal.
Shiva/Rudra has been a major Deva in Hinduism since the Vedic times. Above is a meditating statue of him in the Himalayas with Hindus offering prayers.
The 12 Devas protecting Buddha, by Tani Bunchō. The Hindu Devas were adopted by Japanese Buddhists in the first millennium as Jūni-ten
Vishnu (above) is one of the Vedic Devas. The third Valli of the Katha Upanishad discusses ethical duties of man through the parable of the chariot as a means to realize the state of Vishnu, one with Self-knowledge.
Deity
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A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over the universe, nature or human life. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life".
Pantheists believe that the universe itself and everything in it forms a single, all-encompassing deity.
Statuette of a nude, corpulent, seated woman flanked by two felines from Çatalhöyük, dating to c. 6000 BCE, thought by most archaeologists to represent a goddess of some kind
Yoruba deity from Nigeria
Egyptian tomb painting showing the gods Osiris, Anubis, and Horus, who are among the major deities in ancient Egyptian religion