Twenty-two Goblins (Vetala-Panchavimsati)
Sivadasa (trans. Arthur W. Ryder) · 1917
Read Twenty-two Goblins (Vetala-Panchavimsati) by Sivadasa (trans. Arthur W. Ryder) (1917) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/twenty-two-goblins-ryder-1917.txt.
Description
Arthur W. Ryder translated Twenty-two Goblins in 1917, from Sivadasa's recension of the Vetala-Panchavimsati. King Vikrama carries a goblin-haunted corpse from a burning ground, and the vetala tells him tales on the road. Each tale ends in a riddle; if the king speaks the answer, the corpse flies back to its tree.
The frame forces the king to repeat his journey again and again, tale after tale. Sanskrit story craft shows at its cleverest here, mixing wit, horror, and moral puzzles. Ryder, a beloved Berkeley teacher, gave the cycle an English as crisp as its own riddles.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Sivadasa (trans. Arthur W. Ryder) |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 1917 |
| COLLECTION | BOOKS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 255413 |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | Public Domain |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | Internet Archive |