Vikram and the Vampire quotes

Some nineteen centuries ago, the renowned city of Ujjayani witnessed the birth of a prince to whom was given the gigantic name Vikramaditya.

Even the Sanskrit-speaking people, who are not usually pressed for time, shortened it to “Vikram,” and a little further West it would infallibly have been docked down to “Vik.”

Vikram was the second son of an old king Gandharba-Sena, concerning whom little favourable has reached posterity, except that he became an ass, married four queens, and had by them six sons, each of whom was more learned and powerful than the other.

It so happened that in course of time the father died. Thereupon his eldest heir, who was known as Shank, succeeded to the carpet of Rajaship, and was instantly murdered by Vikram, his “scorpion,” the hero of the following pages.

By this act of vigour and manly decision, which all younger-brother princes should devoutly imitate, Vikram having obtained the title of Bir, or the Brave, made himself Raja.

He began to rule well, and the gods so favoured him that day by day his dominions increased. At length he became lord of all India, and having firmly established his government, he instituted an era—an uncommon feat for a mere monarch, especially when hereditary.

In war he never slew a suppliant, a spectator, a person asleep or undressed, or anyone that showed fear. Whatever country he conquered, offerings were presented to its gods, and effects and money were given to the reverends.

But what benefited him most was his attention to the creature comforts of the Nine Gems of Science: those eminent men ate and drank themselves into fits of enthusiasm, and ended by immortalising their patron’s name.

Become Vikram the Great he established his court at a delightful and beautiful location rich in the best of water. The country was difficult of access, and artificially made incapable of supporting a host of invaders, but four great roads met near the city.

Thus passed onwards his youth, doing nothing that it could desire, forbidden all pleasures because they were unprincely, and working in the palace harder than in the pauper’s hut.

Having, however, fortunately for himself, few predilections and no imagination, he began to pride himself upon being a philosopher.

Much business from an early age had dulled his wits, which were never of the most brilliant;

It is written, however, that love, alas! breeds not love; and so it happened to the Regent.

The warmth of his affection, instead of animating his wife, annoyed her; his protestations wearied her; his vows gave her the headache; and his caresses were a colic that made her blood run cold.

Of course, the prince perceived nothing, being lost in wonder and admiration of the beauty’s coyness and coquetry.

“Of what value are these delusions of wealth and affection, whose sweetness endures for a moment and becomes eternal bitterness?

Love is like the drunkard’s cup: delicious is the first drink, palling are the draughts that succeed it, and most distasteful are the dregs.

What is life but a restless vision of imaginary pleasures and of real pains, from which the only waking is the terrible day of death? The affection of this world is of no use, since, in consequence of it, we fall at last into hell.

“Of what value are these delusions of wealth and affection, whose sweetness endures for a moment and becomes eternal bitterness? Love is like the drunkard’s cup: delicious is the first drink, palling are the draughts that succeed it, and most distasteful are the dregs.

What is life but a restless vision of imaginary pleasures and of real pains, from which the only waking is the terrible day of death?

The affection of this world is of no use, since, in consequence of it, we fall at last into hell.

Therefore, I shall try to distract my thoughts, which otherwise might not be of the most pleasing nature, by means of sprightly tales and profitable reflections.

Sages and men of sense spend their days in the delights of light and heavy literature, whereas dolts and fools waste time in sleep and idleness.

And I purpose to ask thee a number of questions, concerning which we will, if it seems fit to thee, make this covenant:

He was a philosopher, that young man.

But after all, Raja Vikram, what is mortal philosophy? Nothing but another name for indifference!

Who was ever philosophical about a thing truly loved or really hated?—no one! Philosophy, says Shankharacharya, is either the gift of nature or the reward of study.

“Be not so hasty and desperate, my prince,” said the pradhan’s son, seeing his wild grief; “you have not understood her meaning.

Later in life you will be aware of the fact that, in nine cases out of ten, a woman’s ‘no’ is a distinct ‘yes.’

This morning’s work has been good; the maiden asked where you learned the humanities, which being interpreted signifies ‘Who are you?’ ”

all this might have been managed at a tank within fifteen miles of your royal father’s palace. And allow me to say that you may still thank your stars: in love a lost opportunity is seldom if ever recovered.

The time to woo a woman is the moment you meet her, before she has had time to think; allow her the use of reflection and she may escape the net.

And after avoiding the rock of Modesty, fall not, I conjure you, into the gulf of Security. I fear the lady Padmavati, she is too clever and too prudent.

“As a conqueror, my prince!” answered that astute young man, “if it so be that you would be one.

When you wish to win a woman, always impose upon her. Tell her that you are her master, and she will forthwith believe herself to be your servant.

Inform her that she loves you, and forthwith she will adore you. Show her that you care nothing for her, and she will think of nothing but you.

“By means of which he hoped, Raja Vikram!” said the demon, not heeding his royal carrier’s “ughs” and “poohs,” “to become in course of time almost as clever as his mistress.”

Padmavati, being, as you have seen, a maiden of superior mind, was naturally more smitten by her lover’s dullness than by any other of his qualities; she adored it, it was such a contrast to herself.

At first she did what many clever women do—she invested him with the brightness of her own imagination. Still water, she pondered, runs deep;

“Great king!” rejoined the young statesman, “one, thing vouchsafe to hear from me. You have not done well in that you have told my name.

You should never let a woman think that your left hand knows the secret which she confided to your right, much less that you have shared it to a third person.

Secondly, you did evil in allowing her to see the affection with which you honour your unworthy servant—a woman ever hates her lover’s or husband’s friend.”

“What has happened, my lord, has happened!” quoth the minister’s son calmly. “I was prepared for something of this kind from so talented a princess.

None commit such mistakes, such blunders, such follies as your clever women; they cannot even turn out a crime decently executed.

O give me dullness with one idea, one aim, one desire. O thrice blest dullness that combines with happiness, power.”

Raja Vikram was silent, nor did he acknowledge the Baital’s indirect compliment.

He hated flattery, but he liked, when flattered, to be flattered in his own person; a feature in their royal patron’s character which the Nine Gems of Science had turned to their own account.

Now the young prince Raja Ram (continued the tale teller) had an old father, concerning whom I may say that he was exceedingly unlike your Rajaship, both as a man and as a parent.

You learn in youth what you are taught: for instance, the blessed precept that the green stick is of the trees of Paradise; and in age you practise what you have learned.

You cannot teach yourselves anything before your beards sprout, and when they grow stiff you cannot be taught by others.

If anyone attempt to change your opinions you cry,

and you rudely pull his hand from the subject. Yet have you your uses like other things of earth.

In life you are good working camels for the mill-track, and when you die your ashes are not worse compost than those of the wise.

Your Rajaship will observe (continued the Vampire, as Vikram began to show symptoms of ungovernable anger) that I have been concise in treating this digression. Had I not been so, it would have led me far indeed from my tale. Now to return.

But this wonderful discovery, like those of great philosophers generally, had in it a terrible practical flaw.

The birds beginning to speak, spoke wisely and so well, they told the truth so persistently, they rebuked their brethren of the featherless skins so openly, they flattered them so little and they counselled them so much, that mankind presently grew tired of hearing them discourse.

Thus the art gradually fell into desuetude, and now it is numbered with the things that were.

quoth the jay. A light from heaven which rains happiness on this dull, dark earth! A spell falling upon the spirit, which reminds us of a higher existence! A memory of bliss! A present delight! An earnest of future felicity!

It makes hideousness beautiful and stupidity clever, old age young and wickedness good, moroseness amiable, and low-mindedness magnanimous, perversity pretty and vulgarity piquant.

Truly it is sovereign alchemy and excellent flux for blending contradictions is our love, exclaimed the jay.

The father thus soothed her grief: “Daughter! have no anxiety; thy husband is alive, and by the will of the Deity he will come to thee in a few days.

Thieves take men’s money, not their lives.

” Then the parents presented her with ornaments more precious than those which she had lost; and summoning their relations and friends, they comforted her to the best of their power. And so did I.

Altogether, she was neither handsome nor ugly, which is an excellent thing in woman. Sita the goddess was lovely to excess; therefore she was carried away by a demon. Raja Bali was exceedingly generous, and he emptied his treasury.

In this way, exaggeration, even of good, is exceedingly bad.

Yet must I confess, continued the parrot, that, as a rule, the beautiful woman is more virtuous than the ugly. The former is often tempted, but her vanity and conceit enable her to resist, by the self-promise that she shall be tempted again and again.

a homage rendered through the creature to the Creator; a devotion solid, practical, ardent, not as worship mostly is, a cold and lifeless abstraction; a merging of human nature into one far nobler and higher, the spiritual existence of the supernal world.

For perfect love is perfect happiness, and the only perfection of man; and what is a demon but a being without love?

And what makes man’s love truly divine, is the fact that it is bestowed upon such a thing as woman.

Kindly observe that I am far from accepting either one or the other.

Love is, according to me, somewhat akin to mania, a temporary condition of selfishness, a transient confusion of identity.

It enables man to predicate of others who are his other selves, that which he is ashamed to say about his real self. I will suppose the beloved object to be ugly, stupid, vicious, perverse, selfish, low-minded, or the reverse;

I will suppose the beloved object to be ugly, stupid, vicious, perverse, selfish, low-minded, or the reverse; man finds it charming by the same rule that makes his faults and foibles dearer to him than all the virtues and good qualities of his neighbours.

Ye call love a spell, an alchemy, a deity. Why? Because it deifies self by gratifying all man’s pride, man’s vanity, and man’s conceit, under the mask of complete unegotism.

Who is not in heaven when he is talking of himself? and, prithee, of what else consists all the talk of lovers?”

Ye call love a spell, an alchemy, a deity. Why? Because it deifies self by gratifying all man’s pride, man’s vanity, and man’s conceit, under the mask of complete unegotism.

Who is not in heaven when he is talking of himself? and, prithee, of what else consists all the talk of lovers?

”

All the people of the court on hearing this turned aside their heads to laugh, and even the women, who were peeping at the scene, covered their mouths with their veils. The Rajput was then dismissed the presence.

It is, however, noticeable amongst you humans, that the world often takes you at your own valuation.

Set a high price upon yourselves, and each man shall say to his neighbour, “In this man there must be something.” Tell everyone that you are brave, clever, generous, or even handsome, and after a time they will begin to believe you.

“I know not,” rejoined the Baital, “neither do I care. But my habitually inspiriting a succession of human bodies has taught me one fact.

The wise man knows himself, and is, therefore, neither unduly humble or elated, because he had no more to do with making himself than with the cut of his cloak, or with the fitness of his loincloth.

But the fool either loses his head by comparing himself with still greater fools, or is prostrated when he finds himself inferior to other and lesser fools. This shyness he calls modesty, humility, and so forth.

She then went to her husband, and related the whole matter to him. But he had ceased to love her, and he said, “

Neither a king nor a minister, nor a wife, nor a person’s hair nor his nails, look well out of their places.

And the beauty of the kokila is its note, of an ugly man knowledge, of a devotee forgiveness, and of a woman her chastity.”

“Your words be upon my head, sire,” replied the young prince. But he expected no good from his father’s new plan, as, arrived under the siras-tree, he heard the Baital laughing with all his might.

“Surely he is laughing at our beards, sire,” said the beardless prince, who hated to be laughed at like a young person.

“Let them laugh that win,” fiercely cried Raja Vikram, who hated to be laughed at like an elderly person.

“Surely he is laughing at our beards, sire,” said the beardless prince, who hated to be laughed at like a young person.

“Let them laugh that win,” fiercely cried Raja Vikram, who hated to be laughed at like an elderly person.

The Vampire lost no time in opening a fresh story.

After the age of thirty he began to reform, and he brought such zeal to the good cause, that in an incredibly short space of time he came to be accounted and quoted as the paragon of correct Rajas. This was very praiseworthy.

Many of Brahma’s vicegerents on earth, be it observed, have loved food and drink, and music and dancing, and the worship of Kama, to the end of their days.

Amongst his officers was Gunshankar, a magistrate of police, who, curious to say, was as honest as he was just. He administered equity with as much care before as after dinner; he took no bribes even in the matter of advancing his family;

The unwise run from one end to the other.

Not content with becoming highly respectable, correct, and even unimpeachable in point of character, he reformed even his reformation, and he did much more than he was required to do.

When Canopus began to sparkle gaily in the southern skies, the king arose and prepared for a night’s work.

She was very beautiful. Whence did the gods procure the materials to form so exquisite a face? They took a portion of the most excellent part of the moon to form that beautiful face!

Does anyone seek a proof of this? Let him look at the empty places left in the moon.

Her eyes resembled the full-blown blue nymphaea; her arms the charming stalk of the lotus; her flowing tresses the thick darkness of night.

When this lovely person arrived at a marriageable age, her mother, father, and brother, all three became very anxious about her. For the wise have said, “

A daughter nubile but without husband is ever a calamity hanging over a house.

” And, “Kings, women, and climbing plants love those who are near them.” Also, “Who is there that has not suffered from the sex?

“ ‘

The fortune of a man who sits, sits also; it rises when he rises; it sleeps when he sleeps; it moves well when he moves. Travel!

“ ‘A man who sleeps is like the Iron Age. A man who awakes is like the Bronze Age. A man who rises up is like the Silver Age. A man who travels is like the Golden Age. Travel!

“ ‘

A traveller finds honey; a traveller finds sweet figs. Look at the happiness of the sun, who travelling never tires.

Travel!’ ”

“My mind is now averted from the world. Seeing her I say, ‘Is this the form by which men are bewitched?

This is a basket covered with skin; it contains bones, flesh, blood, and impurities.

The stupid creature who is captivated by this—is there a cannibal feeding in Currim a greater cannibal than he? These persons call a thing made up of impure matter a face, and drink its charms as a drunkard swallows the inebriating liquor from his cup.

The householder opened the cloth containing the book, untied the flat boards at the top and bottom, and took out from it a charm. Having repeated this Mantra, with many ceremonies, he at once restored the child to life, saying, “

Of all precious things, knowledge is the most valuable; other riches may be stolen, or diminished by expenditure, but knowledge is immortal, and the greater the expenditure the greater the increase; it can be shared with none, and it defies the power of the thief.

”

His fame went over all the country; yea, from country to country.

He was a sea of excellent qualities, the father and mother of Brahmans, cows, and women, and the horror of loose persons, cutthroats, courtiers, and courtesans.

As a benefactor he was equal to Karna, most liberal of heroes. In regard to truth he was equal to the veracious king Yudhishtira.

… common word in his mother tongue, and whilst he knew to a fingerbreadth how many palms and paces the sun, the moon, and all the stars are distant from the earth, he would have been puzzled to tell you where the region called Yavana lies.

Whilst he could enumerate, in strict chronological succession, every important event that happened five or six million years before he was born, he was profoundly ignorant of those that occurred in his own day.

And once he asked a friend seriously, if a cat let loose in the jungle would not in time become a tiger.

Whilst he could enumerate, in strict chronological succession, every important event that happened five or six million years before he was born, he was profoundly ignorant of those that occurred in his own day.

And once he asked a friend seriously, if a cat let loose in the jungle would not in time become a tiger.

Yet did all the members of alma mater Kasi, Pandits as well as students, look with awe upon Vishnu Swami’s livid cheeks, and lacklustre eyes, grimed hands and soiled cottons.

Their father, who was also their tutor, sedulously cultivated, as all the best works upon education advise, their implicit obedience, humble respect, warm attachment, and the virtues and sentiments generally.

He praised them secretly and reprehended them openly, to exercise their humility. He derided their looks, and dressed them coarsely, to preserve them from vanity and conceit.

Whenever they anticipated a “treat,” he punctually disappointed them, to teach them self-denial. Often when he had promised them a present, he would revoke, not break his word, in order that discipline might have a name and habitat in his household.

He praised them secretly and reprehended them openly, to exercise their humility. He derided their looks, and dressed them coarsely, to preserve them from vanity and conceit.

Whenever they anticipated a “treat,” he punctually disappointed them, to teach them self-denial.

Often when he had promised them a present, he would revoke, not break his word, in order that discipline might have a name and habitat in his household.

“Gramercy!” cried the Vampire, bursting out into a discordant laugh, “I now return to my tree. By this head!

I never before heard a father so readily condemn a father.

” With these words he disappeared, slipping out of the bundle.

“Nonsense!” exclaimed the warrior king, testily, “I can never believe in that freak of Kama Deva.”

He spoke feelingly, for the thing had happened to himself more than once, and on no occasion had it turned out well.

“But there is such a thing, O Raja, as love at first sight,” objected the Baital, speaking dogmatically.

Thus every substance contains a part, more or less, of this fluid, pervading it throughout, and strongly bound to each component atom.

He called it ‘Ambericity,’ for the best of reasons, as it has no connection with amber, and he described it as an imponderable, which, meaning that it could not be weighed, gives a very accurate and satisfactory idea of its nature.

“Now, said that philosopher, whenever two bodies containing that unweighable substance in unequal proportions happen to meet, a current of imponderable passes from one to the other, producing a kind of attraction, and tending to adhere.

But no!

Chandraprabha soon felt as tired of seeing Manaswi and nothing but Manaswi, as Manaswi was weary of seeing Chandraprabha and nothing but Chandraprabha.

Often she had been on the point of proposing visits and out-of-door excursions. But when at last the idea was first suggested by her husband, she at once became an injured woman.

“

Which justice is often unjust enough!

” cried the Vampire; “and ply thy legs, mighty Raja; let me see if thou canst reach the siras-tree before I do.”

Extol her wit and talents, which has the zest of novelty, then you may succeed. For the same reason, read inversely, the plainer and cleverer is the bosom you would fire, the more personal you must be upon the subject of its grace and loveliness.

Flattery, you know, is ever the match which kindles the flame of love.

True it is that some by roughness of demeanour and bluntness in speech, contrasting with those whom they call the “herd,” have the art to succeed in the service of the bodyless god. But even they must—

But, Raja Vikram! all the poets failed to win the fair Unmadini’s love.

To praise the beauty of a beauty is not to praise her.

Extol her wit and talents, which has the zest of novelty, then you may succeed. For the same reason, read inversely, the plainer and cleverer is the bosom you would fire, the more personal you must be upon the subject of its grace and loveliness.

Devasharma, the fourth suitor, contented himself with listening to the others, who fancied that he was overawed by their cleverness. And when it came to his turn he simply remarked, “

Silence is better than speech.

” Being further pressed, he said, “A wise man will not proclaim his age, nor a deception practised upon himself, nor his riches, nor the loss of riches, nor family faults, nor incantations, nor conjugal love, nor medicinal prescriptions, nor religious duties, nor gifts, nor …

The warrior monarch had so far committed himself that he could not prevent the Vampire from flitting.

But he lost no more time in following him than a grain of mustard, in its fall, stays on a cow’s horn.

And when he had thrown him over his shoulder, the king desired him of his own accord to begin a new tale.

There is a queer time coming, O Raja Vikram!—a queer time coming (said the Vampire), a queer time coming.

Elderly people like you talk abundantly about the good old days that were, and about the degeneracy of the days that are.

I wonder what you would say if you could but look forward a few hundred years.

Starving in their own country, they will find enough to eat here, and to carry away also. They will be mischievous as the saw with which ornament-makers trim their shells, and cut ascending as well as descending.

To cultivate their friendship will be like making a gap in the water, and their partisans will ever fare worse than their foes.

They will be selfish as crows, which, though they eat every kind of flesh, will not permit other birds to devour that of the crow.