Heruka - Derivation and Meaning of The Term

Derivation and Meaning of The Term

The name "Heruka" is made up of the prefix "he-" meaning "hey!" and "ruka", a rich term implying many levels of subtle meaning - richness, royalty, etc. It is linked to the Sanskrit word "Rc" which is where the name "Rgveda" comes from. The name of Ruchiraketu, the famous bodhisattva from the Mahayana sutra The Sovereign King of Sutras, the Sublime Golden Light(suvarnabhasottamendraraja) means "He Who Flys the Banner of Riches (ruchira)". He is considered by some to be an emanation of a Heruka.

The Sanskrit term Heruka was translated into both Chinese and Tibetan as "blood drinker," which scholar Ronald Davidson calls "curious," speculating that the nonliteral translation derived from an association the term has with cremation grounds and 'charnel grounds' (Sanskrit: śmāśāna) (which absorb the blood of the dead). Sanskrit terms for blood drinker include asrikpa, reflecting a Sanskrit word for blood (asrik), and raktapa, raktapayin, or rakshasa, derived from an alternate root term for blood (rakta). Unlike the Chinese and Tibetan (Tratung, wylie: khrag 'thung) terms used to translate it, the Sanskrit term heruka does not literally mean blood drinker, although the fact that it was rendered as such into two other languages strongly suggests an according Indian interpretive etymology.