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You may think that the vampire story is a genre that has its roots in nineteenth-century Europe, but in truth, virtually every culture has its own version of undead creatures who feed upon the living. This fascinating collection presents several vampire stories from the South Asian subcontinent that blend supernatural elements with Hindu mysticism and mythology.

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 juin 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781775418252
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0164€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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VIKRAM AND THE VAMPIRE
CLASSIC HINDU TALES OF ADVENTURE, MAGIC, AND ROMANCE
* * *
RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON
Edited by
ISABEL BURTON

*

Vikram and the Vampire Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance First published in 1870 ISBN 978-1-775418-25-2 © 2010 The Floating Press
While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike.
Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Preface Preface to the First (1870) Edition Dedication Introduction The Vampire's First Story - In Which a Man Deceives a Woman The Vampire's Second Story - Of the Relative Villany of Men and Women The Vampire's Third Story - Of a High-Minded Family The Vampire's Fourth Story - Of a Woman Who Told the Truth The Vampire's Fifth Story - Of the Thief Who Laughed and Wept The Vampire's Sixth Story - In Which Three Men Dispute About a Woman The Vampire's Seventh Story - Showing the Exceeding Folly of Many Wise Fools The Vampire's Eighth Story - Of the Use and Misuse of Magic Pills The Vampire's Ninth Story - Showing that a Man's Wife Belongs Not to His Body but to His Head The Vampire's Tenth Story - Of the Marvellous Delicacy of Three Queens The Vampire's Eleventh Story - Which Puzzles Raja Vikram Conclusion Endnotes

*
"Les fables, loin de grandir les hommes, la Nature et Dieu, rapetssent tout." Lamartine (Milton)
"One who had eyes saw it; the blind will not understand it. A poet, who is a boy, he has perceived it; he who understands it will be his sire's sire." Rig-Veda (I.164.16).
Preface
*
The Baital-Pachisi, or Twenty-five Tales of a Baital is the historyof a huge Bat, Vampire, or Evil Spirit which inhabited andanimated dead bodies. It is an old, and thoroughly Hindu, Legendcomposed in Sanskrit, and is the germ which culminated in theArabian Nights, and which inspired the "Golden Ass" of Apuleius,Boccacio's "Decamerone," the "Pentamerone," and all that class offacetious fictitious literature.
The story turns chiefly on a great king named Vikram, the KingArthur of the East, who in pursuance of his promise to a Jogi orMagician, brings to him the Baital (Vampire), who is hanging on atree. The difficulties King Vikram and his son have in bringing theVampire into the presence of the Jogi are truly laughable; and onthis thread is strung a series of Hindu fairy stories, which containmuch interesting information on Indian customs and manners. Italso alludes to that state, which induces Hindu devotees to allowthemselves to be buried alive, and to appear dead for weeks ormonths, and then to return to life again; a curious state ofmesmeric catalepsy, into which they work themselves byconcentrating the mind and abstaining from food - a specimen ofwhich I have given a practical illustration in the Life of Sir RichardBurton.
The following translation is rendered peculiarly; valuable andinteresting by Sir Richard Burton's intimate knowledge of thelanguage. To all who understand the ways of the East, it is aswitty, and as full of what is popularly called "chaff" as it ispossible to be. There is not a dull page in it, and it will especiallyplease those who delight in the weird and supernatural, thegrotesque, and the wild life.
My husband only gives eleven of the best tales, as it was thoughtthe translation would prove more interesting in its abbreviatedform.
ISABEL BURTON.
August 18th, 1893.
Preface to the First (1870) Edition
*
"THE genius of Eastern nations," says an established andrespectable authority, "was, from the earliest times, much turnedtowards invention and the love of fiction. The Indians, thePersians, and the Arabians, were all famous for their fables.Amongst the ancient Greeks we hear of the Ionian and Milesiantales, but they have now perished, and, from every account we hearof them, appear to have been loose and indelicate." Similarly, theclassical dictionaries define "Milesiae fabulae" to be "licentiousthemes," "stories of an amatory or mirthful nature," or "ludicrousand indecent plays." M. Deriege seems indeed to confound themwith the "Moeurs du Temps" illustrated with artistic gouaches,when he says, "une de ces fables milesiennes, rehaussees depeintures, que la corruption romaine recherchait alors avec unefolle ardeur."
My friend, Mr. Richard Charnock, F.A.S.L., more correctlydefines Milesian fables to have been originally " certain tales ornovels, composed by Aristides of Miletus "; gay in matter andgraceful in manner. "They were translated into Latin by thehistorian Sisenna, the friend of Atticus, and they had a greatsuccess at Rome. Plutarch, in his life of Crassus, tells us that afterthe defeat of Carhes (Carrhae?) some Milesiacs were found in thebaggage of the Roman prisoners. The Greek text; and the Latintranslation have long been lost. The only surviving fable is the taleof Cupid and Psyche, [1] which Apuleius calls 'Milesiussermo,' and it makes us deeply regret the disappearance of theothers." Besides this there are the remains of Apollodorus andConon, and a few traces to be found in Pausanias, Athenaeus, andthe scholiasts.
I do not, therefore, agree with Blair, with the dictionaries, or withM. Deriege. Miletus, the great maritime city of Asiatic Ionia, wasof old the meeting-place of the East and the West. Here thePhoenician trader from the Baltic would meet the Hinduwandering to Intra, from Extra, Gangem; and the Hyperboreanwould step on shore side by side with the Nubian and the Aethiop.Here was produced and published for the use of the then civilizedworld, the genuine Oriental apologue, myth and tale combined,which, by amusing narrative and romantic adventure, insinuates alesson in morals or in humanity, of which we often in our daysmust fail to perceive the drift. The book of Apuleius, beforequoted, is subject to as many discoveries of recondite meaning asis Rabelais. As regards the licentiousness of the Milesian fables,this sign of semi-civilization is still inherent in most Eastern booksof the description which we call "light literature," and the ancestraltale-teller never collects a larger purse of coppers than when herelates the worst of his "aurei." But this looseness, resulting fromthe separation of the sexes, is accidental, not necessary. Thefollowing collection will show that it can be dispensed with, andthat there is such a thing as comparative purity in Hindu literature.The author, indeed, almost always takes the trouble to marry hishero and his heroine, and if he cannot find a priest, he generallyadopts an exceedingly left-hand and Caledonian but legal ritecalled "gandharbavivaha. [2] "
The work of Apuleius, as ample internal evidence shows, isborrowed from the East. The groundwork of the tale is themetamorphosis of Lucius of Corinth into an ass, and the strangeaccidents which precede his recovering the human form.
Another old Hindu story-book relates, in the popular fairy-bookstyle, the wondrous adventures of the hero and demigod, the greatGandharba-Sena. That son of Indra, who was also the father ofVikramajit, the subject of this and another collection, offended theruler of the firmament by his fondness for a certain nymph, andwas doomed to wander over earth under the form of a donkey.Through the interposition of the gods, however, he was permittedto become a man during the hours of darkness, thus comparingwith the English legend -
Amundeville is lord by day, But the monk is lord by night.
Whilst labouring under this curse, Gandharba-Sena persuaded theKing of Dhara to give him a daughter in marriage, but itunfortunately so happened that at the wedding hour he was unableto show himself in any but asinine shape. After bathing, however,he proceeded to the assembly, and, hearing songs and music, heresolved to give them a specimen of his voice.
The guests were filled with sorrow that so beautiful a virgin shouldbe married to a donkey. They were afraid to express their feelingsto the king, but they could not refrain from smiling, covering theirmouths with their garments. At length some one interrupted thegeneral silence and said:
"O king, is this the son of Indra? You have found a finebridegroom; you are indeed happy; don't delay the marriage; delayis improper in doing good; we never saw so glorious a wedding! Itis true that we once heard of a camel being married to a jenny-ass;when the ass, looking up to the camel, said, 'Bless me, what abridegroom!' and the camel, hearing the voice of the ass,exclaimed, 'Bless me, what a musical voice!' In that wedding,however, the bride and the bridegroom were equal; but in thismarriage, that such a bride should have such a bridegroom is trulywonderful."
Other Brahmans then present said:
"O king, at the marriage hour, in sign of joy the sacred shell isblown, but thou hast no need of that" (alluding to the donkey'sbraying).
The women all cried out:
"O my mother! [3] what is this? at the time of marriage to havean ass! What a miserable thing! What! will he give that angelic girlin wedlock to a donkey?"
At length Gandharba-Sena, addressing the king in Sanskrit, urgedhim to perform his promise. He reminded his future father-in-lawthat there is no act more meritorious than speaking truth; that themortal frame is a mere dress, and that wise men never estimate thevalue of a person by his clothes. He added that he was in thatshape from the curse of his sire, and that during the night he hadthe body of a man. Of his being the son of Indra there could be nodoubt.
Hearing the donkey thus speak Sanskrit, for it was never knownthat an ass could discourse in that classical tongue, the minds ofthe