The term
Rakshasa, originally referring to a demon in
Hindu mythology, has been used in western and Japanese literature and popular culture. The following are some examples:
Books and comics
Roger Zelazny's novel Lord of Light, the Rakasha are a type of
extraterrestrial beings consisting of "stable fields of energy". They were present before the arrival of humans on the planet of the novel, and are apparently native to it.
In the novel "The Man-Eater of Malgudi," by Indian writer
R.K. Narayan, the anxieties of the protagonist, Nataraj, about a relentlessly violent hunter who has come to town are eased when his employee reminds him that rakshasas always contain the seeds of their own destruction. He tells Nataraj of a rakshasa who scorched the earth with the flames at the ends of his arms but in the end killed himself when he was tricked into touching his hands to his own forehead. The moral of inevitable self-destruction of the "monster-demons" is central to the book's plot and theme, as it allows Nataraj to maintain his pacifism and fatalism even in the face of the antagonist's worst provocations.
In Journey to the West, a famous Chinese novel, one of the antagonists is named 'Lady Raksha'
In the
mangaBerserk, There is a character called Rakshas, who is one of Griffith's apostle lieutenants in the new Band of the Hawk. His body is composed of an amorphous cloak, with his head (and possibly other body parts) hidden inside. He also wears a three eyed mask.
In the Gold Digger comic series, the character Genn is a member of the Rakshasa race, which is a genderless race of shapeshifters who feed on the ethereal energy of other beings for sustenance.
In
F. Paul Wilson's novel The Tomb, hero
Repairman Jack confronts a Bhagavad Gita-studying foe who commands a pack of demonic Rakosh (Rakoshi, plural). While the name of the creatures is not an exact match for Rakshasa, the correspondence of origin, name, and demonic character is clear.
In
Chaos Comics, Rakshasa is the girlfriend of the lesbian vampiress
Purgatori. Rak was the child of demon rape, when her English missionary mother was attacked by a Rakshasa demon.
Rakshasa feature in the original novel Resurrecting Ravana based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series.
In The Last Vampire, a Rakshasa is briefly mentioned as the cause of a plague that ravages Sita's village, and the priest that comes to this conclusion attempts to summon a Yakshini to destroy the Rakshasa, setting the story in motion.
Rakshasas have a major role in the Game World Trilogy by
Samit Basu. The trilogy includes The Simoqin Prophecies, The Manticore's Secret and The Unwaba Revelations. Here the rakshasas are magical creatures, know plenty of magic themselves, see humans as snacks, are efficient shape-shifters and have a country of their own, called Imokoi. Their chief, a combination of Harry Potter's Voldemort and the Ramayan's Ravan, is known as the Dark Lord.
The
light novel series Campione! involves characters called Campioni ("champions") who kill a god and thereby steal that god's power. Rakshasa Monarch is one of the many names that Campioni are known by; they are believed by Japanese mages to be reincarnations of a Rakshasa King.
In the Japanese light novel series Chivalry of a Failed Knight (Rakudai Kishi no Eiyuutan or Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry) by Riku Misora, one of the main character Ikki Kurogane's supernatural martial arts techniques is called Ittou Rasetsu, meaning "single-strike rakshasa" (rasetsu being Japanese for "rakshasa").
Argentinean creators Eduardo Mazzitelli and
Enrique Alcatena created a hardcover comic book rating just over one hundred pages in early 2022, named after and featuring the Rakshasas.
Video games
In the Exile and Avernum series of games, Rakshasas are magic-casting tiger lookalikes; they're one of the nastier adversaries in the later stages of the game.
In Linley's Dungeon Crawl roguelike game, the Rakshasa is a type of monster found in the main dungeon levels, and able to create illusionary copies of itself.
In the video game FreeSpace 2 the Rakshasa is a class of enemy Shivan cruiser.
In the game Final Fantasy (packaged with Final Fantasy II and released as Final Fantasy Origins by Square for PlayStation), there is a tiger-headed creature called a Rakshasa which is a tough spellcaster. This name has been retained in the Game Boy Advance (Dawn of Souls) and PlayStation Portable (20th Anniversary) releases. In the original Final Fantasy for the Nintendo Entertainment System, this was shortened to "Mancat" due to the constraints of the 8-bit machine.
In Final Fantasy XII, many inhabitants of the sky-city
Bhujerba call the monsters from the nearby mines Raksas, derived from Rakshasas.
In the
turn-based strategy game Heroes of Might and Magic V, the Rakshasa Rani is a powerful melee unit in the Academy faction. It is humanoid in appearance, but has the head of a tiger and blue skin, with glowing lower arms and legs. The upgraded units, Rakshasa Raja and Rakshasa Kshatra, have the head of a lion and four arms. The Rakshasa are supposed to be vengeful spirits whom the wizards have learned to control.
In Far Cry 4, the Rakshasa are featured as invaders of Shangri-La. They take many forms including masked humanoids, dogs, and fish, as well as an enormous bird that appears to act as their leader.
In
Halo Infinite, one of the available armor cores bears the name Rakshasa
In the
Megami Tensei series and its spinoffs, including
Persona 5, enemy Rakshasa can be fought and depending on the game, collected and used in battle yourself.
Role-playing games
Rakshasa have long been a race of villains in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.[1] They appear as animal-headed humanoids (generally with tiger or monkey heads) with their hands inverted (palms of its hands are where the backs of the hands would be on a human). They are masters of necromancy, enchantment, and illusion (which they mostly use to disguise themselves) and are very hard to kill.
Magic: The Gathering features a wide variety of Rakshasa in the "Khans of Tarkir" Block.
The Palladium RPG has Rakshasas as a race of Demons, but here, it is spelled "Raksasha".
In the White Wolf game Exalted, the raksha is the name by which the
Fair Folk refer to themselves as a race.
In the BattleTech universe, the Rakshasa is a 75-ton Battlemech. An attempted copy of the signature Mad Cat (Timber Wolf) design.[2]
Films and television
Although not particularly common in Western fiction, the short-lived 1974 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (which influenced The X-Files) has an episode (Horror in the Heights) featuring a Rakshasa which—like its Dungeons & Dragons counterpart—is vulnerable to blessed crossbow bolts. The rakshasa preyed upon its victims by magically disguising itself in the image of people that its victims trusted until it was about to strike.