Valmiki’s Ramayana presents Khara as a member of the rakshasa communities of the Dandaka (Aranya) forest and as the brother of the rakshasa woman Shurpanakha. The supplied texts do not offer a cosmogonic birth tale or a separate origin myth for Khara; rather, he appears within the epic as a kinsman of Shurpanakha and as one of the rakshasa leaders who acts against Rama during the forest exile episodes (Aranya Kanda, Sargas 22–23).
The cited passages and summaries emphasize Khara’s martial role and the size of the force he commands rather than an extended bodily portrait. Valmiki’s account and program summaries report that Khara sets out with a host described numerically (fourteen thousand demons), indicating a commanding and formidable presence appropriate to leading a large rakshasa army. The provided materials do not supply detailed descriptions of his facial features, coloration, height, or specific armaments beyond generic references to his unusual arsenal.
Textual evidence attributes to Khara organized military command and the capacity to marshal a large rakshasa host—Valmiki explicitly records that he marches with fourteen thousand demons. He conducts an offensive expedition from the forest against Rama’s party and is described as proceeding vaingloriously despite many bad omens observed in vultures, animals, and nature. The supplied sources frame Khara principally as a martial antagonist whose challenge precipitates combat with Rama; the materials do not catalogue supernatural powers (such as magic or shape‑changing) for Khara beyond his leadership of rakshasa forces.
Weaknesses
- conditiondefeat in direct combat by Rama
Wards
None recorded.
Dushana
Dushana is a named rakshasa (demon) attested in Ramayana-cycle materials as one of the forest chiefs allied to Khara and counted among Ravana's kin; he is reported slain in encounters with Rama's party during the exile (Aranya/Panchavati episodes).
Rakshasa (Himalayan variants)
A Himalayan reception of the pan-Indian rakshasa motif: hostile or disruptive non‑human beings known from Sanskrit epic and Puranic literature, here noted where Himalayan sources and discussions intersect with the broader epic tradition. The supplied sources do not document distinct, well‑attested Himalayan folklore variants; the entry therefore presents primarily the epic/legendary profile as transmitted into Himalayan contexts in general references.
Kesari
Kesari is a male vanara in the Ramayana tradition, usually identified as the husband of Anjana and the father (or foster-father in some theological accounts) of the hero Hanuman. He is represented in secondary summaries as a ruler associated with Mount Meru/Sumeru and later as a chief commander among the vanaras of Kishkindha; later retellings also credit him with participation in the war against Ravana, though primary-text attestation for some wartime exploits is uncertain.
Keter
Keter (Hebrew: כֶּתֶר, "crown") is the highest of the ten sefirot in Jewish Kabbalistic cosmology, the first emanation from the Ein Sof that functions as the primal divine will or initial impulse toward creation. It is described as utterly concealed — "the most hidden of all hidden things" — and as the origin point from which subsequent sefirot emerge.
Khachkar Spirit (cross-stone guardian)
No primary or folkloric sources in the provided research identify a named supernatural 'Khachkar Spirit' or consistent guardian spirit associated with khachkars. What is documented in the supplied materials is the khachkar as a carved Armenian cross-stone monument (a material cultural object), including an archaeological example dated to 982 found in Wadi al-Natrun, Egypt, demonstrating Armenian presence outside Armenia.
Khan Garuda
Khan Garuda (Garuda) is a divine avian being from Indic religious cosmology, principally known as the mount (vahana) and attendant of the god Vishnu. The figure appears across Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain textual traditions and is embedded in mythic genealogies as a son of Kashyapa and Vinata and brother of Aruna.
Khan of Heaven (Tian Kehan / Tengri Khagan)
A politico-religious title used in Tang‑era diplomacy that linked imperial rulership to the supreme sky/heaven concept (Chinese Tian / Turkic Tengri). It functioned as a formula of recognition conferring celestially sanctioned authority on the Tang emperor in relations with Turkic and other Inner Asian polities between the early 7th century and the late 8th century.
Khandoba’s attendants
A referred category for attendant figures associated with the regional Hindu deity Khandoba in Maharashtrian tradition. The supplied sources discuss Khandoba himself but do not describe attendants such as Kaatoba; therefore no specific attendant identities, roles, or practices are attested in the provided material.
Kharchi
The 14 tribal deities of Tripura — Kharchi are the ancestral guardian spirits of the Tripuri royal lineage, propitiated every year at the ancient Chaturdasha Devata temple in Agartala in one of Northeast India's most distinctive surviving tribal-Hindu syncretic festivals.
Khefthernebes
Khefthernebes is a name attested among the corpus of ancient Egyptian deities; surviving sources list the name but do not record any attributes, roles, or myths. The published surveys note that many Egyptian deity names are preserved without indicating character or function, and Khefthernebes appears to be one of those names.
Khensit
Khensit (also Khenset, Chensit, Khensut) is a localized ancient Egyptian goddess who served as the patroness of the twentieth nome of Lower Egypt and the consort of the local god Sopdu at the city of Per-Soped (Saft el-Hinna). She is attested in brief genealogical and iconographic notes and is described in sources as depicted as an uraeus and sometimes portrayed in associations with Hathor-Isis.
Khenti-kheti
Khenti-kheti is a local tutelary deity of ancient Athribis in Lower Egypt, attested in sources as a crocodile-god later represented as a hawk associated with Horus and, in some descriptions, able to assume the form of a giant black bull named Kemwer. Over time his cult in Athribis was syncretized with or replaced by better-known deities such as Sebek, Horus, and eventually Osiris.
Kherty
Kherty is an ancient Egyptian netjer of the Duat attested from the early 2nd Dynasty and prominent in Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts. He functions as an underworld escort or ferryman for the dead—especially the king—while also appearing as an ambivalent figure associated with the physical act of dying.
Khetor
Khetor (also rendered Khetra; compound Mota Khetor) is a named spirit/ghost-figure attested in ethnographic and health-care sources from Assam. It appears in inventories of locally significant supernatural agents among Bodo and Karbi groups and, in a Tai Khamyang ethnomedical account, a fierce form (Mota Khetor) is implicated specifically in miscarriage and female sterility.
Community Record
- [1]Valmiki Ramayana - Aranya Kanda - Sarga 22 (prose). Valmiki, Aranya Kanda, Sarga 22 (prose); online text at valmikiramayan.netliterary
- [2]Valmiki Ramayana - Aranya Kanda - Sarga 23 (prose). Valmiki, Aranya Kanda, Sarga 23 (prose); online text at valmikiramayan.netliterary
- [3]Bharat Ek Khoj - Episode 8: Ramayana, Part II (summary reference). Bharat Ek Khoj, Episode 8 summary referencing Khara and Dushana episodesother
- [4]Ramayana Retreat #6 - Session 4 - Saturday, July 6, 2013 (retreat notes and summaries). Ramayana retreat session notes/summaries referencing the destruction of Khara and Dushanaother
- [5]Wikipedia: List of characters in the Ramayana (entry referencing Khara). Wikipedia entry listing Khara among Ramayana characterswiki
- [6]The Sampradaya Sun - Editorial stories referencing Ramayana episodes. Editorial summaries and commentaries referencing Aranya Kanda episodes including Kharaother