Indian tale tradition, Burton adaptation
Baital
The Baital is a corpse-animating spirit at the centre of Vikram and the Vampire. As King Vikram carries him away, the spirit tells stories and sets a condition: an answer will release him to return to his tree. Burton calls this being a vampire and identifies Baital with the Sanskrit name Vetala, but this particular adaptation should not be treated as the definition of every vetala tradition.
Also known as Vetala · Vetāla · Vétála
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In the sources
Baital and Vetala
DocumentedA footnote in Burton's preface states that Baital is the modern form of Vetala. The same page describes a spirit that animates dead bodies. This documents Burton's terminology, rather than settling the full history of the name.
An answer breaks the journey
LiteraryThe spirit's covenant allows him to leave Vikram whenever the king answers. Silence, confusion or inability to reply would allow the king to deliver him to his intended recipient.
A challenge to judgement and pride
InterpretationOn the covenant page the Baital taunts the king's vanity and urges him to mortify his pride. The encounter can therefore be read as a contest over judgement and self-confidence, not merely a pursuit of a monster.
Context & interpretation
This entry is about Richard F. Burton's adaptation and Ernest Griset's accompanying illustrations. Burton's preface makes sweeping claims about the transmission of stories between cultures; those claims have not been established by this pilot. The English word vampire and Griset's winged monster are features of this edition, not proof of identity with European vampire traditions.
Original passages
Source 1
Vikram and the Vampire
Baital is the modern form of Vétála.Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Preface to the first (1870) edition, p. xvii, note 2
Scan checked; quotation marks around names omitted; spacing normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0169-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0169-E001-P0017
- Original scan leaf
- 23
- Recorded leaf number
- 23
- Current Reader position
- 16
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Vikram and the Vampire
I leave thee and return to my favourite place and position in the siras-treeOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Introduction, printed p. 40
Scan checked; line breaks and spacing normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0169-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0169-E001-P0062
- Original scan leaf
- 70
- Recorded leaf number
- 70
- Current Reader position
- 61
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
