Stories and Classics▼

When I get time, I plan to share stories from these texts.

Vikram-Vetal

A collection of 25 stories in which King Vikramaditya carries a Vetala (a spirit inhabiting a corpse) on his back to a sorcerer, on the promise of silence. At the end of each tale, the Vetala asks a riddle; if Vikram knows the answer but stays silent, his head will burst, so he is compelled to answer, breaking his vow, and the Vetala flies back to the tree. This repeats 24 times before the final tale, where Vikram's intelligence and integrity ultimately foil the sorcerer's plot.

Shukasaptati

A frame story in which a wife, whose husband is away on a journey, is restrained from committing adultery by her pet parrot. Each night, the parrot begins a story but leaves it unfinished until the next night — successfully delaying her for seventy nights until the husband returns.

Thakurmar Jhuli

A Bengali folktale collection. Unlike the Sanskrit works, these are folk tales - featuring princes, princesses, demons, talking animals, and magical transformations - in the spirit of preserving Bengal's storytelling heritage.