Kathasaritsagara’s Vetala Frame

Record summary

Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara incorporates and reshapes the Vikramaditya–Vetala material within a much larger Sanskrit story ocean. It is a useful lead for examining how ghostly figures move across textual frames, how oral and written transmission alter motifs, and how cremation-ground encounters can be embedded in courtly entertainment. The work was composed in Kashmir, but its stories circulate through broader Indian narrative traditions. The relationship between Somadeva’s text, earlier lost sources and later vernacular versions is complex, so no single passage should be assumed to preserve an original eyewitness tradition.