What better place for a bloodthirsty vampire to feed than a battleground? One of the vampires of India and Hindu mythology chooses to haunt the wars and battles, waiting to feed on fallen soldiers. These creatures. called the Pey, or Peymakilir, are vampires of southern India, in Tamil.
India has many different vampires, and this is [...]
Some other vampires of Indian lore are the masan, a male vampire, and the masani, a female vampire. Other than the similarities of their names and being vampires, they don’t really have that much in common. One haunts burial sites and graveyards, and one will stalk anyone who crosses its shadow.
The masani vampire, who is [...]
The brahmaparusha is a particularly horrifying vampire of India. This vampire is a malevolent spirit who takes delight in eating humans. They are extremely vicious and consumed with bloodlust, and a hunger for brains.
Their appearance alone is grotesque and terrifying; these vampires would wear intestines around their necks from victims they had destroyed. They would [...]
The vetala is another vampire of India. The vetala are a class of demons in Hindu mythology that have the power to enter the bodies of human or animal corpses and reanimate them. They can enter living victims as well, and manipulate them as they please. Generally, though, the vetala stick to inhabiting the bodies [...]
The Baital Pachisi, also called Vikram and the Vampire, is an ancient text written in Sanskrit thousands of years ago. It’s perhaps the oldest piece of fiction about a vampire. It was rewritten by the dramatist Bhavabhuti some time in the eighth century.
It’s written as a story within a story. It begins with the tale [...]
Pishacha are another sort of vampire creature of Hindu mythology. They are flesh-eating demons, typically associated with being feminine. They are described as having red, swollen eyes and bulging veins. These creatures are nocturnal, of course.
They are said to haunt cremation grounds, like many of the other demonic beings of Hindu lore. Some legends describe [...]
The Hindu myths contain a lot of stories of vampire like demons. The bloodthirsty goddess Kali is, essentially, a vampire. She’s similar to the also bloodthirsty Egyptian goddess, Sekhmet.
Kali is most often depicted with four arms, wielding weapons and severed limbs, and with black skin. She wears a necklace constructed of human skulls. A skirt [...]
There is some research that suggests ancient India was the original source of the vampire legends. Stories of undead, bloodsucking creatures may have traveled from India to places like Romania, Russia, and other lands, to form what our ideas of the vampire are today.
Earliest myths of vampire-like creatures seem to come from India, and other [...]
