Most Americans meet the Rakshasa in exactly two places: a 1974 episode of a beloved horror TV series and the pages of the Dungeons &amp; Dragons Monster Manual. Both versions give you a debonair, tiger-faced shape-changer with a taste for human flesh - but neither prepares you for how deep, how old, and how genuinely alive these creatures are. To dig us out of that pop-culture foxhole, we sat down with academic researcher Eric Zsebenyi for a tour that runs from the Rig Veda to the Ramayana, into Buddhism, through present-day Sri Lankan politics, and finishes at the tent-shaped tomb of a very naughty Victorian translator.<br /><br />🎙️ Our GuestEric Zsebenyi holds a master's degree from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naropa_University" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Naropa University</a> (2000) and has pursued Buddhist studies as a lifelong avocation alongside a career as a civil servant. His path to the Rakshasas began with a Dharma protector named Vetali in his own meditation practice - which, as you'll hear, leads straight back to one of India's stranger monsters. Blake met Eric at the recent Gods &amp; Monsters Conference, where Eric delivered a paper on the Vetala.<br /><br />You can find Eric's work here: <a href="https://naropa.academia.edu/EricZsebenyi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eric Zsebenyi on Academia.edu</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.monstertalk.org/s05e34-rakshasas/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Extensive show notes at Monstertalk.org</a><br /><br />Become a supporter of this podcast: <a href="https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss">https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support</a>.<br /><br />Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.