Vetala

A vetala is a vampire-like being from Hindu mythology. They differ from vampires in other traditions in that they exist as wraithly beings who reside by day in the corpses of others. These corpses may be used as vehicles for movement (as they no longer decay while so inhabited), but a vetala may also leave the body at night to feed.

In Hindu folklore, the vetala is an evil spirit who haunts cemeteries and takes demonic possession of corpses. They make their displeasure known by troubling humans. Victims reanimated by a Vetàla would always have their hands and feet pointed backwards. They can drive people mad, kill children and cause miscarriages but they also guard their villages.

They are hostile spirits of the dead whose children did not perform funerary rites in their memory. As a result they are trapped in the twilight zone between life and after-life. These creatures can be appeased with gifts or frightened away with spells. One can free them from their ghostly existence by performing their funerary rites. Being spirits, unfettered by the laws of space and time, they have an uncanny knowledge about the past, present and future and a deep insight into human nature. Hence, many sorcerers seek to capture them and turn them into slaves.

A sorcerer once asked King Vikramaditya to capture a vetala who lived in a tree that stood in the middle of a crematorium. The only way to do that was by keeping silent.

However, every time Vikramaditya caught the ghost, the ghost would enchant the king with a story that would end with a question. No matter how hard he tried, Vikramaditya would not be able to resist answering the question. This would enable the vetala to escape and return to his tree. The stories of the vetala have been compiled in the book "Vetala-pachisi".