The Baital-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 it 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 ...
