Question about Raksashas

[Tom Jones]

The feline headed Raksashas of D&D ( I know the creatures of Indian folklore are totally different) are one of my favorite monsters.Have they ever been featured significantly in any of the novels or short stories based on D&D settings?​

 

[megamania]

The closest I can think of is in Eberron. However, Eberron Raksashas are very different than other campaign worlds.

 

[Mad_Jack]

I know there are at least one or two of the older-edition modules in which they're one of the major bad guys...

They're definitely one of the more under-utilized bad guys - almost any plot that could be done with drow or mindflayers could also just as easily be done with rakshasas...

 

[Random Bystander]

I know there are at least one or two of the older-edition modules in which they're one of the major bad guys...

They're definitely one of the more under-utilized bad guys - almost any plot that could be done with drow or mindflayers could also just as easily be done with rakshasas...

The problem being that almost any plot that could be done with rakshasas could be done with drow, mindflayers, or yuan-ti. And cat-people are not considered unique or distinct; or so is my general sense of the fandom.

Plus, visually speaking, rakshasas are not distinct.
"How did you know they were drow?" "Elves with purple/black skin and white hair."
"Mindflayers?" "Squid-headed elfenoids who were eating brains through their tentacles."
"Yuan-ti?" "Snake elfenoids sacrificing elfenoids to snake gods."
"Rakshasa?" "Their hands were attached backwards, at the wrist."

For that matter, a fair number of Rakshasa plots could also be done by dopplegangers, changelings, and ordinary elven spies.

Overall, we are left with evil, demonic cat-people, with a single distinguishing feature to distinguish them from regular cat-people, and no plot features to distinguish them from any of a dozen other possible similar threats.