Rakshasa

Rakshasa or “The Destroyer” is a part of the Indian folklore.  This particular vampire creature will find its victim during the darkest hour of the night and during New Moon.  Rakshasas are evil creatures, they would normally attack the vulnerable people like children, and interestingly they also love to victimize women on their wedding day.  They attack men in a different manner.  It is believed that Rakshasa is able to enter the man’s body by the food he eats.  He would then control his body, and then slowly drive him insane.

Rakshasa are giant creatures which possess a human deformity.  He has a scary eyes and longer tongues than the norms.  They have huge tummy, and their body is covered with red hair. They also have horns and their number of limbs varies.  They are also believed to have the ability to shape shift in the form of an animal and also take the identity of another human being.

Rakshasa loves to eat human flesh and to drink human blood while using their victim’s skull as a glass.  But that is not all, they love to eat human flesh with crawling insects, the more disgusting, the more delicious it is to them.  There are also stories that they sometimes eat corpses.  Their hungers on flesh are insatiable,   they would then search the forest for an animal to kill and feed upon.  Like the western vampire, the Rakshasa also have the ability to reanimate the dead.  Some people also believed that a person who was touched by a Rakshasa would immediately die.

Rakshasa usually lurks on wooden areas such as the forest and the jungle.  They also haunt places where the people love to worship and pray.  The locals believed that there is a remedy once these creatures invade your body through the food that you consumed.  They believed that by boiling porridge that contains the nest of a bird will drive the rakshasa away from your body.

A story about rakshasa can be found in Pantschatantra.  The story is about a travelling Brahmin who was jumped over by a rakshasa on his shoulder and was demanding to be carried on a certain destination.  The Brahmin was so afraid of the rakshasa that he immediately obeyed, but as they were on their way, he noticed that his feet was too fragile.  The Brahmin asked the rakshasa why his feet are too fragile and he answered that his feet never touch the land and he intended to keep it that way.

Eventually the two of them reached a pond.  The rakshasa ordered the man to wait for him.  The rakshasa bathed onto the pond and prayed to the Gods, but the Brahmin is well aware that once the creature is finished, it would tear his flesh into pieces.  The Brahmin decided to escape and ran away from the creature.  The rakshasa could not do anything about it since he was determined to keep his pledge to not touch the ground.