vetala
वेताल vetālaA spirit that animates a corpse, a haunter of the cremation ground ranked with the pisacha and the rakshasa; the narrator of the Vetala-panchavimshati.
Where this term appears
- The Beings of the Dark Treatise
The vetāla is the eerie spirit that animates a corpse, hanging from trees in the burning ground, wielding uncanny knowledge, the being who, in the beloved Vetāla-pañcaviṃśati (the "Baitāl Pachīsī"), rides on th…
- Shaiva death rites: burning a man who is already free Lineages
…oor of the pyre a diagram of twenty-five squares is drawn, called the vetala , with Brahma and earth at the centre in yellow, Vishnu and water in the southwest in white, Rudra and fire in the southeast in red.