Vikram and the Vampire: Four Tales
King Vikram must carry a talkative Vampire through the night. On the way, the Vampire tells him stories, each ending in a riddle. If the king knows the answer and stays silent, his head will burst; if he speaks, the Vampire flies back to his tree. Four of the best Baital Pachisi tales. By Richard F. Burton (1870). A public-domain classic, from Baital Pachisi.
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How it begins In the venerable city of Bardwan, O warrior king! (quoth the Vampire) during the reign of the mighty Rupsen, flourished one Rajeshwar, a Rajput warrior of distinguished fame. By his valour and conduct he had risen from the lowest ranks of the army to command it as its captain. And arrived at that dignity, he did not put a stop to all improvements, like other chiefs, who rejoice to rest and return thanks. On the contrary, he became such a reformer that, to some extent, he remodelled the art of war.Instead of attending to rules and regulations, drawn up in their studies by pandits and Brahmans, he consulted chiefly his own experience and judgment. He threw aside the systematic plans of campaigns laid down in the Shastras or books of the ancients, and he acted upon the spur of the moment. He displayed a skill in the choice of ground, in the use of light troops, and in securing his own supplies whilst he cut off those of the enemy, which Kartikaya himself, God of War, might have envied. Finding that the bows of his troops were clumsy and slow to use, he had them all changed before compelled so to do by defeat; he also gave his attention to the sword handles, which cramped the men’s grasp but which having been used for eighteen hundred years were considered perfect weapons. And having organized a special corps of warriors using fire arrows, he soon brought it to such perfection that, by using it against the elephants of his enemies, he gained many a campaign. Keep reading →About this story
King Vikram must carry a talkative Vampire through the night. On the way, the Vampire tells him stories, each ending in a riddle. If the king knows the answer and stays silent, his head will burst; if he speaks, the Vampire flies back to his tree. These are four of the best Baital Pachisi tales.
Sir Richard F. Burton, the English explorer and translator, published his version in 1870, as Vikram and the Vampire. The Sanskrit original, the Baital Pachisi or Twenty-five Tales of a Vampire, was written down about a thousand years ago. The stories are puzzles, and the fun is in trying to answer them.
- Themes
- Riddles, a king’s duty, tales within tales
- Good for
- Readers who like puzzles and long, nested stories
- Worth noticing
- How each story ends on a question, and why the king cannot resist answering.