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| A '''vetala''' is a [[vampire]]-like being from '''Hindu mythology'''.
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| Vetalas differ from vampires in that they exist as [[Wraith|wraithly]] beings who reside by day in the corpses of others.
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| ==Main Belief==
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| In Indian lore, '''vetala''' is a type of '''[[Ghoul]]''' or '''[[Vampire]]''' haunting cemeteries and reanimating the dead.
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| Corpses may be used as vehicles for movement, as they no longer decay while so inhabited, though at night vetala may also leave the body in order to feed.
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| '''Vetala''' are hostile spirits of the dead whose offspring did not perform funerary rites in their memory.
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| As a result they are trapped in the twilight zone between life and after-life.
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| These creatures can be appeased with gifts or frightened away with spells.
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| Performing properly the funerary rites mean getting rid of those evil spirits.
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| ===Appearance===
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| The '''vetala''' has a demonic appearance.
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| Victims reanimated by vetala have their hands and feet pointed backwards.
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| ===Behaviour===
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| 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.
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| They make their displeasure known by troubling humans by:
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| *causing madness;
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| *causing miscarriages
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| *killing children:
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| They are also said the guard their villages.
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| ===Habitat===
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| The vetala lives in stones scattered around hills inside and/or surrounding cemeteries.
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| In Decca it supposedly guards villages and inhabits red-painted stones.
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| ===Vetala in Lore===
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| 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.
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| However, every time Vikramaditya caught the ghost, the ghost would enchant the king with a story that would end with a question.
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| No matter how hard he tried, Vikramaditya would not be able to resist answering the question.
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| This would enable the vetala to escape and return to his tree.
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| The stories of the vetala have been listed in the book ''Vetala-pachisi''.
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| ==See Also==
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| *[[Ghost]]
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| *[[Ghoul]]
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| *[[Hold Hag]], reportedly sucking the blood off women gone to bed drunk
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| *[[Nightmare]]
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| *[[Vampire]]
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| *[[Wraith]]
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| ==Sources==
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| *[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0816046859/qid=1152701396/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9667874-2159829?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 Guiley, Rosemary ''The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters'']
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| [[Category:Hindu mythology]]
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| [[Category:Ghouls]]
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| {{wikipedia}}
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