| abstract | - 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 are implied by "ruka". It is linked to the Sanskrit word "Rc" which is where the name "Rgveda" comes from. The famous bodhisattva of the second chapter of the Mahayanasutra "Sovereign King of Golden Splendour" (suvarnabhasottamendraraja) is called "Ruciraketu" - "He Who Flys the Banner of Riches (ruchira)" - is a lay 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). However, unlike the Chinese and Tibetan (Tratung, wylie: khrag 'thung) terms used to translate it, the Sanskrit term heruka does not mean blood drinker.
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