[Advaita-l] Asuras and Dharma

[Santosh Rao]

Namaskara,

In the shastras we read about how some asuras were given knowledge by
certain preceptors, for example, shukra is known to have been the guru of
the asuras, while brighu was the preceptor of the devas.

My question is, what exactly were these asuras learning? Was it the Vedas,
or some other type of knowledge? If it was the Vedas, doesn't that mean
there was adhikara for that to take place to begin with? How was that
defined? If there was adhikara, then why would the lord have to incarnate
to mislead them with a false doctrine (buddha), instead of correcting them
in their errors?

I also read somewhere that the carvaka atheistic philosophy has it's
origins with rishi brhispathi....is this true? If so, was it's purpose to
mislead a certain group of people similar to what we are taught about
buddhism? Sorry if this is offtopic, I've been curious about it for a while.

Thanks,

Santosh Rao