rakshasa
राक्षस rākṣasaA class of demonic 'night-wanderers' who disturb the yajna; a category of beings in the epics ranked with the asura and against the deva, and not a single cosmic Devil.
Where this term appears
- Devas and Asuras Deities
An *asura* is a member of the class of powerful beings who contend with the *devas*, the gods, for sovereignty over the worlds. The word did not begin as an insult.…
- What are Mudras? Lineages
… whole classical play, Vishakhadatta's Mudrarakshasa , "The Signet of Rakshasa," turns its entire plot on the theft and misuse of such a ring; Kalidasa's Shakuntala hangs on the loss of another.
- Who is Rama? Deities
The age had fallen under the shadow of Ravana, the ten-headed rakshasa king of Lanka, who had won by penance a boon that no god or demon could kill him, and who had forgotten to guard against a mere man.
- Does Hinduism have a Devil or a Satan? Journal
The rakshasas , the "night-wanderers" who trouble the sacrifices and haunt the dark, are similar: a category of unruly beings, dangerous in particular stories, but a class of creatures within the world, not a s…
- The Beings of the Dark Treatise
And the rākṣasa is the great demon proper — the powerful, appetite-driven, often shape-shifting being who devours sacrifices and preys on the righteous, the archetype of the monstrous in Indian story.
- The Classes of the Gods Treatise
Hinduism did not merely have many gods; it thought of them in classes and collectives from its earliest texts, and this taxonomy is the tradition's own version of…
- The Court of Vishnu Treatise
The rākṣasa Rāvaṇa — remembered by the tradition not only as a monster but as a great devotee — is here revealed as something even more intimate — a doorkeeper of Vishnu's own house, hurled out by a curse, raci…