Vedic tradition
Rakshasa appears in Vedic tradition.
The Ṛgveda names rakṣasas among harmful night-beings opposed in hymn speech. A named Vedic adversary class in that corpus, not a later Rāmāyaṇa cast list alone and not asura as identity.
from Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation) · The Rigveda, 2014 (this translation); hymns much older
appears in · sourced · documented
sources
- The Rigveda · Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation)
Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton, The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India.