Vikram and the Vampire

The Baitol-Pachisi (“Twenty-five Tales of a Vampire”), composed in Sanskrit early in the Christian era by the sage Bhavabhuti, is one of the masterpieces of Indian literature and one of the best examples of humorous supernatural fiction. In this book King Vikram, the King Arthur of India, because of an oath made to a magician, has to carry the Baital (a vampire that inhabits and animates dead bodies) a distance of four miles. They make a pact: the vampire will use all his skills to arouse the king’s curiosity with stories of love, magic, and villainy, but if Vikram speaks, the Baital will fly back to his tree-home. The crafty vampire outwits Vikram many times before the king accomplishes his mission.

This translation and adaptation by the great Orientalist and story-teller Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-1890) includes the frame of the work (introduction and conclusion) and eleven of the best stories. The stories are perhaps best described as fairy tales-myth and tale combined, insinuating a lesson in morals or in humanity by amusing narrative or romantic adventure. They include tales of amorous scheming, of the relative villainy of men and women, of unflinching loyalty and devotion, of a woman who told the truth, of the use and misuse of magic pills, and a bizarre story of the future.