Rakshasa

Rakshasa
Season(s)	2
Status	Extant
Powers and Abilities	Shapeshifters that can make themselves invisible.
Vulnerabilities	A knife of pure brass. Cannot enter a home without an invitation.
Appearance	Humanoid; can appear in any form it wants.

“	Sam: Rakshasa. It's a race of ancient Hindu creatures. They appear in human form, they feed on human flesh, they can make themselves invisible, and they cannot enter a home without first being invited. Dean: They dress up like clowns, and children invite them in. Why don't they just feed on the kids? Sam: Not enough meat on the bones, maybe? Apparently, Rakshasa live in squalor. They sleep on a bed of dead insects. And they have to feed a few times every 20 to 30 years -- slow metabolism, I guess.	”
	— Sam and Dean on the Rakshasa in Everybody Loves a Clown

The Rakshasa are an ancient Hindu race of mischievous and homicidal imp creatures.

Characteristics

“	Dean: Planes crash! Sam: Yeah, and apparently, clowns kill.	”
	— Sam and Dean in Everybody Loves a Clown

Rakshasas are creatures from Hindu mythology, known for their traits of eating human flesh, sleeping on a bed of dead insects and shapeshifting to disguise themselves as humans. Fortunately for humanity, Rakshasas eat very sparingly every couple or three decades due to a very slow metabolism that affects their digestion. A rakshasa cannot enter a house without first being invited and to not draw unwanted attention to themselves, they adopt a life of poverty with some even living as vagabonds. The one in Supernatural appeared as a clown at the fair who would follow children home, get the child to let them into the house and then eat the parents.

Physical Appearance

A Rakshasha can disguise themselves as humans to blend in with their environments. A Rakshasha can distort their face to reveal their nature. This form has prominent wrinkles, long angry eyebrows, green cat-like eyes, and a creepy long smile.

Background

The Rakshasa is disguised as the blind knife thrower who works with the circus. It appears to children as a jester, and, when they invite it into their home, it kills their parents. Ellen tells them the creature can be killed with a knife of pure brass. While Sam believed the real Rakshasha was Mr. S. Cooper, Dean asks the knife thrower if he can borrow a brass knife from him. As Barry is talking, Dean discovers the clown costume in his chest, revealing that he was the actual Rakshasha. Dean storms out of the room that he was in, frantically telling Sam that he is the Rakshasha. They run into a funhouse where he pursues them. Inside the funhouse, it becomes invisible and starts throwing knives at them, Dean pushes a lever that expels a thick smoke that makes it visible. Sam in the thick fog, manages to kill the Rakshasa by breaking a nearby organ made of brass and uses it as a weapon to kill it.

Powers and Abilities

• Shapeshifting - They can take human form to disguise themselves and can distort their faces to partially reveal their true form.
• Invisibility - They can easily render themselves completely invisible to the naked eye. They can only be seen partially through thick smoke as demonstrated in the ending of Everybody Loves a Clown.
• Invulnerability - They can only be killed by brass, allowing it to quickly and completely recover from being damaged from anything else.
• Super Strength - They are incredibly strong, able to easily overpower and maul humans.
• Super Senses - They possess incredible hearing, as one was able to over hear Dean's entire conversation, despite being outside the range of human hearing distance.
• Super Speed - They move really fast, appearing a mist-like blur.
• Longevity (Implied) - Sam suspected Mr. S. Cooper of being the Rakshasha due to him looking exactly like his father in an old picture.

Weaknesses

• Brass - A Rakshasa can be killed with a brass knife. Sam killed the rakshasa in the fun house by breaking off a brass organ pipe and stabbing it with it.
• Invitation - A Rakshasa cannot enter a home without being invited in. The Rakshasa in Everybody Loves a Clown combated this by dressing as a clown so that the children would invite it in. 

Known Rakshasas

• Barry Papazian (deceased)
• Unnamed Rakashasas (in lore, deceased)
• Unnamed Rakshasa (deceased)

Appearances

• Season 2
  • Everybody Loves a Clown
• Season 3
  • Jus In Bello (Barry Papazian, referenced only)
• Season 5
  • The Real Ghostbusters (impersonation and mentioned)

Trivia

• Rakshasa's eyes are similar to those of Samhain.
• Before Barry Papazian was ousted as a Rakshasa, Mr. S. Cooper was suspected of being one, partially due to the fact that he worked with two circuses that the Rakshasa was believed to work in and that Cooper possessed a great resemblance to his father, who owned the previous circus. This implies that the creature has some level of Longevity.
• Their true form somewhat resembles The Grinch from the 1966 Dr. Suess animated adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.