Wikipedia Trails: From Surpanakha to Rakshasa

For my storybook this week I am writing about Surpanakha, so I decided to look on her Wikipedia page for any information that wasn't covered in our readings. One of the interesting things I looked into were her parents' history because I'm honestly still a little confused about the Rakshasa identifier in Indian literature. Is it a separate race or just a group of evil humans? Anyway so I clicked on her father, Vishrava first, and guess what? He is a powerful and respectable yogi! So why are Surpanakha and Ravana so evil? Her rakshasi mother, Kaikesi apparently schemed in order to cause Vishrava to leave his first wife and have four demonic children with her. From there I clicked on a link to the Rakshasa page where I sorted out all of the confusion I had. They are there own distinct race although they apparently have children with humans all the time. There is a negative connotation related to cannibalism (man eater is another name for them) although there are good rakshasas. Mainly their powers of illusion are what make them distinct from humans.

Image: Demon, Wikimedia Commons