The legendary king Vikrama vows to an occultist that he will capture a Baital Pishacha a
celestial evil spirit. A Baital is an Indian equivalent of vampires in Western literature. It
hangs upside-down from a tree and haunts graveyards to take demonic possession of corpses. King
Vikrama faces several challenges in bringing Baital to the occultist. Each time Vikram tries to
capture Baital the ghoul tells a story that ends with a riddle. If Vikrama fails to answer the
question correctly the spirit agrees to remain in captivity. If the king knows the answer but
still keeps quiet his head shall burst into thousand pieces. And if King Vikrama answered the
question correctly Baital would flee and return to his tree. But the king knows the answer to
every question so will he ever catch the spirit? This curiosity ends later in the story after
many efforts made by the king to capture the demon fail. This collection presents immortal
tales of ancient chivalry wisdom foolishness honesty and trickery. It is an English
translation of the mythical stories of Vikram and Baital originally written in Sanskrit. The
translator has aimed to produce a work that would let people read the original text with
accuracy.
