Vetala; possessing dead bodies!

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…

What the heck is a vampire, anyway?

  All this talk about vampires, but what the heck is a vampire anyway? The definition has changed so much over time, that what once was considered a vampire is now called something else. The original European vampires were more like what we would call zombies today. Vampires have been based on demons and ghoulish…

Baital Pachisi

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…