Recently, the Sci-Fi channel has been playing marathon-length strings of Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes, which is good because I love the show. Anyway...one of the episodes which I'd completely forgotten about was on just a week or two ago, and it featured a certain kind of Indian demon which walked around in various guises which appeal to the eyes of the beholder. I do believe this creature was called...Rakshasa! Yes, the very one upon which a certain other kind of demon was based by The Man...

Recently, the Sci-Fi channel has been playing marathon-length strings of Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes, which is good because I love the show. Anyway...one of the episodes which I'd completely forgotten about was on just a week or two ago, and it featured a certain kind of Indian demon which walked around in various guises which appeal to the eyes of the beholder. I do believe this creature was called...Rakshasa! Yes, the very one upon which a certain other kind of demon was based by The Man...

Hey, Barry.

That's interesting! I watched Kolchak:The Night Stalker,too. That was a long time ago.....When I was kid. So I don't remember those details. If I have a opportunity, I'll check it.

Recently, the Sci-Fi channel has been playing marathon-length strings of Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes, which is good because I love the show. Anyway...one of the episodes which I'd completely forgotten about was on just a week or two ago, and it featured a certain kind of Indian demon which walked around in various guises which appeal to the eyes of the beholder. I do believe this creature was called...Rakshasa! Yes, the very one upon which a certain other kind of demon was based by The Man...

The Rakshasa rocked (arrgh) using peoples thoughts to cloak itself as someone the victim trusted completely. Hadn't seen that in years.

The Rakshasa rocked (arrgh) using peoples thoughts to cloak itself as someone the victim trusted completely. Hadn't seen that in years.

Yep. Traditionally they were shapeshifters. (One of the favorite pasttimes of the females was to assume the shape of the wife of a powerful man and conceive children by him.) But I didn't want to get into shapeshifting -- that would have screwed up the story I wanted to write. I wanted a primal, evil creature, and so I cherry-picked characteristics I needed and canned the rest. I'm told Rakshasa is from the nationalized Hindi dialect. Rakosh is the Bengali form (one of 500 dialects in India).

I had the opportunity to buy a video tape of two of the episodes

Recently, the Sci-Fi channel has been playing marathon-length strings of Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes, which is good because I love the show. Anyway...one of the episodes which I'd completely forgotten about was on just a week or two ago, and it featured a certain kind of Indian demon which walked around in various guises which appeal to the eyes of the beholder. I do believe this creature was called...Rakshasa! Yes, the very one upon which a certain other kind of demon was based by The Man...

Yep. Traditionally they were shapeshifters. (One of the favorite pasttimes of the females was to assume the shape of the wife of a powerful man and conceive children by him.) But I didn't want to get into shapeshifting -- that would have screwed up the story I wanted to write. I wanted a primal, evil creature, and so I cherry-picked characteristics I needed and canned the rest. I'm told Rakshasa is from the nationalized Hindi dialect. Rakosh is the Bengali form (one of 500 dialects in India).

Rakosh sounds more fearsome than Rakshasa. Kinda like Longorn vs. a Holstein. Great white vs. a basking shark. IMO.


KRW

personally i think the rakoshi are a thousand times more frightening than rakshasha, which probably couldn't give me goosebumps without ice. the rakshasha in the spiderman india comics, however, were really cool, and didn't shapeshift, just flew.

p.s., is that a tuxedo mask icon?

Yep. Traditionally they were shapeshifters. (One of the favorite pasttimes of the females was to assume the shape of the wife of a powerful man and conceive children by him.) But I didn't want to get into shapeshifting -- that would have screwed up the story I wanted to write. I wanted a primal, evil creature, and so I cherry-picked characteristics I needed and canned the rest. I'm told Rakshasa is from the nationalized Hindi dialect. Rakosh is the Bengali form (one of 500 dialects in India).

So the Rakoshi is actually based on Indian folklore? Out of curiousity, how did you stumble across this idea for The Tomb?

Here's a photo of Kolchak's Rakshasha:



One of the best Kolchak episodes, directed by a Hammer film veteran - Freddie Jones? Jimmy Sangster?

Wow, thanks for the photo, Mick! I had such a crush on Darren McGavin.