Yakshini and the Curse

In Ramayan, Vishwamitra is accredited for cultivating the finest warrior skills in Shri Ram, during their journey from Ayodhya to his hermitage, he bestowed divine weapons and occult arts to him. There were many reasons behind choosing Vishwamitra:

Before attaining the position of Brahmmrishi, he was an emperor and a proficient warrior himself.
He was a connoisseur in archery.
Along with being the inventor of Gayatri-Mantra, he knew about many mantra-vidyas that were going to help Shri Ram in his future endeavors.

We will soon learn about those arts and about Vishwamitra as well.The reason I briefed the above as that had what proceeded towards our today's subject. Today I will tell you about Tadka.

On their way to hermitage, they stopped at a deserted place, Shri Ram inquired as why the place looked haunted. The sage informed him about the menace of Tadka, a rakshasi. She was a dreadful giant with an appaling appearance, after all that is how rakshasas usually looked or rather described in the serials isn't it. Whatever, the haunted place that Shri Ram inquired wasn't like this forever, there were two accomplished kingdoms: Malad and Karush once. They were created by Indra’s filth and hunger after killing demon Vrattasur, so Indra blessed these two kingdoms to be wealthy and prosperous.

Therefore, with Vishwamitra's command Shri Ram clenched his left fist on the grip of the middle part of the bow and with his right arm he stretched the bowstring till his ear and made a booming sound. The thunder quavered all the directions; those were filled with the sound of it. Even Tadka was stupefied with the thunderous sound. She saw him standing firm, enraged, she attacked him and a great duel triggered. Soon Shri Ram eliminated the rakshasi and the redeemed the place of her terror. The redeemer of the world had initiated the war against adharm.

Before coming to any conclusion, let's know more about Tadka;

She was born to a yaksha, Suketu, that means initially she wasn't a rakshas. With the blessings of Brahmm Dev she possessed strength equaling to a thousand elephants. Suketu married her to Sund, a daitya. They had a son who was later known as Mareech. Yes, the same Mareech who was transported to south by Shri Ram.

Mareech's conduct were off to dharm and he used to torment the sages and other beings. Sage Agastya cursed him and he turned into a rakshas, when Sund heard about it he tried to avenge his son and hence was eliminated by the sage. Mareech knew about her mother's strength, he informed her about the unfortunate(according to him), enraged, she decided to take revenge and attacked Agastya in attempt to devour him.

But Agastya was a profound sage, he foiled her assault and cursed her to become a rakshasi like her son, 'the conduct of both you and your son's had been towards unrighteousness like the evil rakshasas, so be it. You both shall live such life. Your appearance will be frightful and if you both won't learn the lesson even after this, your end will soon catch up to you.'

This was the story of an attractive yakshini who was transformed into a dreadful creature.

We learn a few things today:

Unlike the general conception; the rakshas, daitya and daanavs were pretty normal in appearance.
The karma and conduct of a being delivers him/her to their fate, no matter to what species they belong.
The horrible appearances, giant sizes of the demons was due to the curse' effect not by birth.