vampire

Chapter 2 Prologue [-] The Bloodthirsty Ghost

"It is the treasure of the Eastern world." This is how a well-known authoritative organization commented on Indian mythology.In ancient times, many people created these stories.Indians, Persians, and Arabs are all known to the world for their myths.We have also heard the myths of Ionia and Milites in the history of ancient Greece, but now there is almost no trace of these, and even the records are only some trivial words.The ancient dictionaries define the "myth of Militus" as "poetry without meter", "stories of lovers or sexual desires" or "absurd and obscene drama", while M. De Lige calls it Nankemeng with artistic form .

My friend, however, Richard Chenock, more accurately defines the "myths of Militus" as "myths or novels written by Militus", with cheerful plots and graceful shapes.Atticus' friend, the historian Sisena, also translated these stories into Latin, which had aroused great repercussions in Rome and Greece.In the "Biographies of Crassus" written by Plutarch, it is recorded that after the defeat of the Battle of Kahes, some myths of Milites were found in the packages of Roman prisoners, all of which were Greek texts and Latin translations This has long been lost.The only surviving book of mythology is the story of Cupid and Psyche, which Apuleius called the "Miletus Doctrinal Book."In addition, there are some residual copies of Apollodorus and Conon, and related records in Paphosanias, Athenaos and "Master Commentators".

In my opinion, Blair, the dictionary, or M · De Lige's statement may not be correct.Militus was a well-known seaport city on the west coast of Asia Minor, and it was also the gathering center and commercial trade area of ​​Eastern and Western cultures at that time.Commercial transactions between Phoenician merchants from the Baltic Sea and those from the surrounding areas of India were carried out here; at the same time, civilians and Nubians from the northern pure lands also lined up on the shore to trade.At the same time, Militus was also the holy land of civilization at that time, and those myths, fables and novels of the oriental world that reflected human morality or human character were also born here.The beautiful scenery and romantic and bizarre adventures described in the stories often make us fascinated.The historical stories in the book of Apuleius had been widely circulated before the historical records of the time.

The absurdity shown in the myth of Militus coincides with the description of most ancient oriental works. We call this kind of semi-civilized literature "light literature".Of course, our sages will definitely not write some indecent things into the book.Although the indulgence and banter shown in the article are also attributed to the description of sexual desire, they are definitely not intentional by the author.Although the stories we show you are not serious enough, there are definitely some places where they are not serious enough, but at the same time, the relatively pure and elegant side of Indian literature is vividly displayed here.The author of this book is almost at pains to describe how to marry a bride, and if there is no priest to officiate the marriage, he often uses an old Scottish law called "Gandha Baviha" (this ceremony will be described later). ceremony.

In the works of Apuleius, there are many traces of oriental culture left and borrowed for reference.Among them, many myths are very similar to the metamorphosis background of "Lucius of the Gulf of Corinth turned into a donkey", using brand new stories to tirelessly tell the same truth of human nature.

Another great figure in ancient Indian legends is Gandhaba Sinna.The myths and legends about him are often based on the bizarre adventures of the protagonist and monsters.Gandhaba Shinna is the son of God Indra and the father of Vikram Market. Because he fell in love with a fairy who lived in the mountains, forests and waters, he violated the will of God. God turned him into a donkey and relegated him to the mortal.Later, all the gods interceded for him, and the gods allowed him to become a human, but punished him to only move in the dark.Let's take a look at the description of the English version of the story:

Amundiville rules the day;
Monks rule the night.

Under such circumstances, Gandhaba Sina succeeded in persuading King Tihana to marry one of the king's daughters.But when attending the wedding, he can only appear as a donkey.But no matter what, after changing clothes and bathing, he came to everyone and enjoyed songs and music with everyone.He secretly made up his mind to say a few words in front of all the guests.

However, when the guests present heard that the future husband of such a beautiful girl would be a donkey, they all felt very sorry.But they didn't dare to tell the king what they really thought, so they could only smile and say nothing, and naturally there was no joy at all.Finally, someone broke the silent atmosphere and said:

"Oh, my lord, is the bridegroom a child of Indra? What a good bridegroom. You should be glad that the wedding went ahead as planned, after all it is impolite to delay the wedding. I have never had such a grand wedding before." We have participated! We have heard a story about a camel marrying a donkey before. The donkey looked up at the camel and said, "I am so happy, what a husband!" After hearing the donkey's confession, the camel was excited. "I am so happy, what a beautiful voice!" In that wedding, the bridegroom and the bride were the same; but in our wedding, there should be a bride who is as beautiful as a fairy. Bridegroom, that would be a wonderful thing."

Afterwards, other Brahmin courtiers also spoke one after another:

"My dear Majesty, what a sacred and solemn moment this is! Everyone is gathered together, you can't let us hear such a sound!" (Alluding to the donkey's braying.)
The ladies screamed:

"Oh, God! How could a donkey appear at the wedding? It's ridiculous! How can a donkey bring a girl a happy married life?"

In the end, Gandhaba Sinna addressed the guests in Sanskrit and promised that he would follow the teachings of his future father-in-law to work hard and live an honest life.He said that a decent appearance is nothing more than a person's clothes, and a sensible person does not judge a person by what he wears.He also said that he had become what he was because of the mistakes of his ancestors; that at night he would become a man, so that he was still a child of Indra, beyond doubt.

People were amazed to hear that the donkey could speak Sanskrit so fluently.It is remarkable that a donkey can speak in human language.People's views on Gandhaba Sina have also changed.It is also admitted that although he has the shape of a donkey, he is undoubtedly the child of Indra.In this way, the king married his daughter to Gandhaba Sina.Then, many strange things followed this unfortunate marriage. It was not until the protagonist Gandhaba Sinna restored his previous appearance and reputation that everything returned to normal.

Gandhaba Sinna was a celebrity who lived in the Christian era, so the story can be traced back to the time of Apuleius in Africa in 130 AD.

"Betal Pasis", or "25 Stories of a Vampire", tells the mythical stories of bats, vampires or demons who live in the dead in the natural world.There are some ancient Indian stories in the book, and the original book is recorded in ancient Sanskrit.This kind of historical fiction created a precedent for Indian literature; the appearance of entertainment novels such as "Arabian Nights" made it mature; and Boccaccio, an outstanding writer, created a chivalrous style. The romance novels of the novels continued this kind of creative development well; until modern Europe, the creation of heroic history novels made it reach its peak.

Sanskrit, which people call the language of God, is also known as the Latin of India.These historical masterpieces compiled in Sanskrit have now been translated into many ancient Indian languages ​​and many local and modern dialects in India.Due to the limitations of this book's single-teaching language characteristics, there is no Muslim church language translation so far.Take the book "Black Top Padsey" - also called "A Friend's Advice" as an example. We can see from the table of contents that this book is based on the five chapters of "Ponchetante". section ancient books.This book is a mythical story narrated by a learned Brahmin named Viser Sharma in order to teach his students, the descendants of Indian princes.

There are already many translations of these myths, such as Persian, ancient Syriac, Turkish, Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic.Among them, the Persian, Turkish, Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic versions are the most widely circulated.People are very familiar with Persian mythology, at least the name is very famous, so it is not difficult to break into the European literary world.At first, these myths were very scattered. After sorting them out, we were surprised to find that the source of the creation of "Ten Days Talk" is obviously here.A modern Italian critic said that nearly one hundred stories in modern classical novels, such as Boccaccio's "Ten Days Talk", have been recited in the court of Queen Joanna of Naples according to experts' research. Such a poem, Boccaccio himself just wrote such a masterpiece in the second half of his life with the simplest but also the most original act of collecting and accumulating.Therefore, the creation of the great Florentine writer is not the story itself, nor the plot of the story.His creative period was in the middle of the 14th century. At that time, the West borrowed many things from the East, such as poetry, novels, lutes, drums, alchemy, and military affairs.As "Dongfang Tong" said, many of these novels are still widely read by troubadours, storytellers and orators in Persia and Central Asia.

The great king from the Kshatriya class - Vikram Aditya ("Vikram" means "valor" and "might"), namely Vikramulka (meaning "the light of heroism") ”), who was once the general of King Arthur of India, ruled the Far West, and historically existed.His father was Gandhaba Sina and his mother was Queen Dihara.Gandhaba Sinna vowed to give Vikram the power of a thousand bull elephants before he was born, but when his father died, his grandfather Indra categorically said that the child should not have been born , His mother was heartbroken.But nine months later, Vikram came to this world and was taken away by Indra.Indra felt sorry for the child, so he adopted him and gave him a good education.

There are many theories about Wickram's accession to the throne.However, he did serve as king of the island of Malaya.The island of Malaya is now the Malwa region, a province west of the upper Indus River.There are many heroic legends about him, all of which praised his brave deeds and described him as "a heroic figure holding a big umbrella that can cover the whole earth".

The Pal royal family was the last ruling family of the island of Malaya, ruling for a total of 318 years.Pal himself reigned for 25 years, and later because he was too obsessed with women, King Shakadi Taya from the Kumano Plateau occupied his country.In the 14th year of Vikram's reign, he pretended to be an in-law of the Pal royal family, defeated Shakadi Taya, and became the king of Delhi.The capital of Delhi is Avanti, which is now the city of Ujjain. The city is 26 miles long, 18 miles wide, and covers an area of ​​468 square miles. It is just a tiny place on the map of India.During Wickram's reign, he successfully taught the local savage race, so he won the title of "Sakari".During the time of Kaliyug, the Iron Age, Vikram had a great reputation for promoting learning among the royal families of India.Because of his strong recommendation and protection, nine scholars are called "Nine Great Scientific Wizards" in India, almost comparable to the seven wise men of Greece in India.

At that time, these academics used 18 local Indian dialects (Mr. Ward could not list the names of these 18 dialects one by one, and he could only list nine kinds at most, namely: Sanskrit, ancient Indian, Nagar, Pai, etc.) Saka, Gandhaba, Lakashasa, Adhamjadi, Apa and Ancient Hiyak, except for the first two, the latter seven are all transliterations. About these languages The description can be found in "Pingola") wrote a book.Dihan Vantari is the founder of medicine; Kashapanaka mainly studies the basic principles; Amala Sehan compiles Sanskrit dictionaries and philosophical treatises; Shankubeta Khan writes notes and comments; Ghart Kapala is the An unassuming poet, whose Mihalla is now seldom mentioned; Varaja's two works on astrology and one on arithmetic are his chief achievements; Mainly in terms of improving grammar, there is also a poem in praise of King Madahava.

But the most famous of all these academic masters was Kalidasa.Two of his plays, Saquintara, have been handed down to this day.In addition, he wrote a poem, a work on astronomy, a poetic historical drama of the gods, and many other books, all of which are widely read. (It was the time of Sawans, when Vikram Aditya was still alive, and another king, Magha, wanted to write a poem named after him. According to him, every line of the poem was Pay attention to highlighting the brilliant experience of learned people, and the whole poem is 5280 lines long, which is more than "Lost Paradise". In today's view, the number is really huge. Around the same period, during the reign of Vikram, Kanata Is the third king who is famous for valuing erudite talents. Tihavakar, a poet of almost the same period, has received a gift of [-] lines of poetry from Shri Harsha, entitled "Ratna Mara.)
Wickram started the Sambet era (from AD 56).Although his reign was brilliant, he was honorably sacrificed in the war with Sarivahana.At that time, the king of Sarivahana was Pratisna. After defeating Vikram, he founded the "Shaka" era, which began in AD 78.Today, people still commemorate that period of history, and Indians still carry out memorial activities on Pratisna's birthday, wedding anniversary and similar days.

After Wickram, his youngest son, Wickram Sina, succeeded to the throne, and his father and son ruled for 93 years.Eventually, a loyal courtier named Samdala Parra usurped his son's throne.Samdara Pala reigned for 24 years and two months, and then passed on to 16 heirs successively, with a total reign of 641 years and three months.Samdala Pala was eventually killed in the war with the kingdom of Telaka Chandra.The king of Telaka Chandra is Vaharanaha (Lieutenant Wilford advocated this saying: there were eight Vikram Aditya-style monarchs before and after, and the era established by the last monarch can be further developed. Textual research. Interested readers can refer to "Selected Works of Larsens" and "On Wickram" written by Professor HH Wilson.

The value of this ancient story lies in its enlightenment and popularity.I have made some changes to the original text and added some human touch.

To my uncle Robert Bagshaw, these fairy tales will remind him of the land he knew and loved.

(End of this chapter)