Rakshasa
- Origin
- Hindu texts first. The written records here are Rigveda hymn 87 of Book 10, in Griffith's 1896 translation, which praises Agni as slayer of the Raksas, and the Ramayan, in which Ravan is king of the Rakshas (Griffith, 1870-74). These sources give no date for when either text was composed. Wikipedia records rakshasas in Buddhism, including the rakshasa daughters of Lotus Sutra chapter 26, in Jainism, and in the folk Islam of Indonesia. Crooke (1896) records a North Indian folk belief.
- How we treat it
- The label covers rakshasas as beings in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain tradition. It makes no claim that they exist. Wikipedia calls them usually malevolent, and in the Lotus Sutra rakshasa daughters act as protectors, so the entry uses the tradition's own word for them.
- Routes out
- The Hindu texts come first: the Rigveda hymn, then the Ramayan, both in 19th-century translations by Griffith. Wikipedia follows for the Buddhist, Jain and Indonesian spread. Crooke comes last, as a colonial folklorist's account of folk belief. No source written by the communities who hold these traditions was recorded.
Rakshasas are beings found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and the folk Islam of Indonesia, according to Wikipedia. A Rigveda hymn to Agni hails him as their slayer, and in the Ramayan Ravan calls himself their king.
Wikipedia gives the Sanskrit rākṣasa and the Pali rakkhasa, and describes rakshasas as beings found in Hinduism and Buddhism, in Jainism, and in the folk Islam of Indonesia, whom it calls usually malevolent. They live on Earth but hold supernatural powers, which Wikipedia says they tend to turn to disrupting Vedic sacrifices or to eating humans.
The Rigveda passage here is hymn 87 of Book 10, in Ralph T. H. Griffith's 1896 translation. The hymn praises Agni as the slayer of the Raksas, asks him to guard the worshippers by day and by night, and calls on him to attack the raw-flesh eaters with his iron teeth and flame. In Griffith's verse Ramayan (1870-74), Ravan introduces himself as king of the Rakshas and ruler of Lanka, a city on a mountain above the sea, and asks a woman to become his queen.
Buddhism has rakshasas too. Wikipedia says the Lotus Sutra, in its chapter 26, has rakshasa daughters promising the Buddha to protect the sutra and teaching dharanis, protective spells, to those who uphold it.
William Crooke, writing on northern India in 1896, recorded a belief that a rakshasi takes the shape of a beautiful woman and lures young men who travel at night to their ruin. He noted that the rakshasi was sometimes identified with the churel.
"I BALM with oil the mighty Raksas-slayer; to the most famous Friend I come for shelter Enkindled, sharpened by our rites, may Agni protect us in the day and night from evil. 2. O Jatavedas with the teeth of iron, enkindled with thy flame attack the demons. Seize with thy longue the foolish gods' adorers: rend, put within thy mouth the raw-flesh caters. 3. Apply thy teeth, the upper and the lower, thou who hast both, enkindled and destroying. Roam also in the air, O King, around us, and with thy jaws assail the wicked spirits. 4."
- The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse, Ralph T. H. Griffith, tr. (1870-74), Project Gutenberg
- Rakshasa, Wikipedia
- The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, Vol. 1 (2nd ed.), William Crooke (1896), Project Gutenberg