History Literature / TwentyFiveTalesOfTheVetala

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The story is known in Urdu/Hindi as ''Baital Pachisi'' and in Sanskrit as ''Vetala Panchavimshati''; for this reason, the vetala is sometimes called a baital.

The FramingDevice is that of King Vikram, who is strong and kind but not all that wise. Every day, he sits in his throne room and sees various people. One person who comes every day is a random beggar who always offers the king a piece of fruit. Since a piece of fruit isn't that impressive a gift for a king, Vikram just hands the fruit over to his advisor and doesn't think about it at all. Then, one day, Vikram's pet [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys monkey]] steals the bit of fruit and throws it at the floor, breaking the skin. This reveals that inside the fruit was a jewel. Vikram immediately asks his advisor what he's been doing with the other bits of fruit, to which the advisor responds he's been throwing them into a random room and hasn't even bothered to look at them. Vikram goes to the room, and finds a lot of rotting bits of fruit on the floor, with a jewel inside every one.

Intrigued, Vikram asks the beggar why he does this. The beggar reveals he's really a sorceror, and says that if Vikram comes with him to a cemetary that night and helps him with a simple task, he'll gain much more than simple earthly riches. Vikram agrees, and goes to the haunted cemetary. The sorceror tells him that to complete the ritual, he needs a body hanging by a tree that is possessed by a spirit - a ''vetala''. He warns Vikram not to speak to the spirit, and Vikram goes to the tree and starts carrying the body to the sorceror on his back.

So happen the twenty-four tales of the vetala (the FramingDevice being the twenty-fifth of the title). Each time Vikram gets [[TricksterMentor the vetala]] from the tree and tries to carry it to the sorceror, the vetala tells him a story with a confusing moral and flies all the way back to the tree. With each story, [[CharacterDevelopment Vikram gets wiser]]. The legend is believed by some to be the origin for the nested stories of the Literature/ArabianNights, and is quite well known in its native India. There is a translation by an American Indologist named Arthur William Ryder [[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2290/2290-h/2290-h.htm#intro on Project Gutenberg]] that is quite accurate to the original. A book by comparative mythologist Heinrich Zimmer called ''[[http://books.google.co.in/books?id=cRYJDuzjd44C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Heinrich+Zimmer&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil]]'' deals with the psychological implications of the legend in some detail.

* DarkIsNotEvil: While the sorceror is a dark evil force, the cemetary, corpses and the vetala itself are good.

* ObviouslyEvil: The sorceror, who Vikram trusts enough despite his plan being 'come to this creepy haunted place and lug around a corpse for my dark magic and I'll make it worth your while'.

* TricksterMentor: The vetala borders on being a {{Troll}}, but it genuinely does want Vikram to get wiser.

So happen the twenty-four tales of the vetala (the FramingDevice being the twenty-fifth of the title). Each time Vikram gets the [[TricksterMentor the vetala]] from the tree and tries to carry it to the sorceror, the vetala tells him a story with a confusing moral and flies all the way back to the tree. With each story, [[CharacterDevelopment Vikram gets wiser]]. The legend is believed by some to be the origin for the nested stories of the Literature/ArabianNights, and is quite well known in its native India. There is a translation by an American Indologist named Arthur William Ryder [[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2290/2290-h/2290-h.htm#intro on Project Gutenberg]] that is quite accurate to the original. A book by comparative mythologist Heinrich Zimmer called ''[[http://books.google.co.in/books?id=cRYJDuzjd44C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Heinrich+Zimmer&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil]]'' deals with the psychological implications of the legend in some detail.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The story is known in Sanskrit as either ''Baital Pachisi'' or ''Vetala Panchavimshati''.
** Not quite. ''Baital Pachisi'' is not a Sanskrit name at all: it is a later Hindi/Urdu version of the original Sanskrit name ''Vetala Panchavimshati''.

** Not quite. ''Baital Pachisi'' is not a grammatical Sanskrit name (it is a later Hindi/Urdu version of the original Sanskrit name ''Vetala Panchavimshati'' (which is in correct Sanskrit).

So happen the twenty-four tales of the vetala (the FramingDevice being the twenty-fifth of the title). Each time Vikram gets the [[TricksterMentor the vetala]] from the tree and tries to carry it to the sorceror, the vetala tells him a story with a confusing moral and flies all the way back to the tree. With each story, [[CharacterDevelopment Vikram gets wiser]]. The legend is believed by some to be the origin for the nested stories of the ArabianNights, and is quite well known in its native India. There is a translation by an American Indologist named Arthur William Ryder [[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2290/2290-h/2290-h.htm#intro on Project Gutenberg]] that is quite accurate to the original. A book by comparative mythologist Heinrich Zimmer called ''[[http://books.google.co.in/books?id=cRYJDuzjd44C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Heinrich+Zimmer&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil]]'' deals with the psychological implications of the legend in some detail.