The Five-and-twenty Tales of the Genie

Download or read book The Five-and-twenty Tales of the Genie written by Sivadāsa and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1995 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Translated from the Sanskrit with an introduction by Chandra Rajan This delightful collection of tales centres around the encounter of the fabled emperor Vikramaditya with a vetala, a genie, who inhabits a corpse. Vikramaditya is told twenty-four tales by the genie who ends each with a riddle. These present situations which Vikramaditya is likely to face as a king and he is required to find solutions, almost as though he were dispensing justice in his own court. With each answer Vikramaditya displays immense wisdom and a perfect knowledge of the law (Dharma) proving that he is indeed the ideal monarch he is reputed to be. The twenty-fifth tale in the collection is the epilogue to the narrative.