Library / Literature & Fiction
Vikram and the Vampire: Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance
- Pages
- about 281
- Category
- Literature & Fiction
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5.2 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
The Baital-Pachisi, or Twenty-five Tales of a Baital is the history of
a huge Bat, Vampire, or Evil Spirit which inhabited and animated dead
bodies. It is an old, and thoroughly Hindu, Legend composed in Sanskrit,
and is the germ which culminated in the Arabian Nights, and which
inspired the “Golden Ass” of Apuleius, Boccacio’s “Decamerone,” the
“Pentamerone,” and all that class of facetious fictitious literature.
The story turns chiefly on a great king named Vikram, the King Arthur of
the East, who in pursuance of his promise to a Jogi or Magician, brings
to him the Baital (Vampire), who is hanging on a tree. The difficulties
King Vikram and his son have in bringing the Vampire into the presence
of the Jogi are truly laughable; and on this thread is strung a series
of Hindu fairy stories, which contain much interesting information on
Indian customs and manners. It also alludes to that state, which induces
Hindu devotees to allow themselves to be buried alive, and to appear
dead for weeks or months, and then to return to life again; a curious
state of mesmeric catalepsy, into which they work themselves by
concentrating the mind and abstaining from food--a specimen of which I
have given a practical illustration in the Life of Sir Richard Burton.
The following translation is rendered peculiarly; valuable and
interesting by Sir Richard Burton’s intimate knowledge of the language.
To all who understand the ways of the East, it is as witty, and as full
of what is popularly called “chaff” as it is possible to be. There is
not a dull page in it, and it will especially please those who delight
in the weird and supernatural, the grotesque, and the wild life.
My husband only gives eleven of the best tales, as it was thought the
translation would prove more interesting in its abbreviated form.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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