Symbiosis School For Libearl Arts

Objects out of place: Unexplained and unexplainable

(Semester end evaluation)
-Riya Banthia (21060322124)

Vampires
Sharp fang-like canines with blood trickling down the edge of their lips, a white-washed face
with high hair, and eyes that can only be described as marbles reflecting a ray of light – it is the
sort seen in movies, Vampires.
As fantastical as they may appear, there are a plethora of stories throughout the world that
attempt to illustrate that they are or were genuine and utterly different from what we think they
are. As Hollywood has taught us, with the help of movies and series like Twilight or the Vampire
Diaries, the vampires cannot see themselves in mirrors, have fangs, or drink human blood. Garlic
may be used to repel them, or they can be killed with a stake through the heart. While some of it
is somewhat real, these are not the vampire stories which have been written in our ancient text.
In the following essay, I intend to talk about vampire stories throughout the world,
misconceptions about them, and a few of the ideas from which the stories might have originated.

Vampires were not always so well defined. Scholars believe that the contemporary image of
these Halloween creatures sprang from a variety of traditional European beliefs. These beliefs
were based on the concern that the dead may still harm the living after being buried. These
stories were frequently based on a misunderstanding of how bodies decay. Teeth and fingernails
might grow longer when a corpse's skin shrinks. When internal organs break down, a black
"purge fluid" might flow out of the nose and mouth. People unfamiliar with the technique may
mistake this fluid for blood and believe the corpse was sipping it from the living.

Suspicion was not just based on the presence of bloody bodies. People believed vampires were
behind the unseen powers steadily devouring their villages until they learned how illnesses
propagated. In his book Vampire Forensics, Mark Collins Jenkins argues, "The one constant in
the growth of vampire mythology has been its strong link with sickness." Attempting to kill
vampires or keep them from eating gave humans a sense of control over sickness.

Nevertheless, many sources and ancient stories of Vampires still exist. There are many ideas
about the origin of Vampires as being originated from Sorcerers, witches, werewolves, and those
who died unnatural death (suicides or drunkards). However, the true origin of Vampires is
believed to be from Draquals.

Vlad the Impaler and Dracula, outrageous cruelty and peculiar fondness for displaying his
victims on stakes earned him the name. A late-15th-century account talks about the history of
Vlad III, who ruled Wallachia (located in modern-day Romania) intermittently from 1448 to
1476. Here, Dracula is a gifted leader, a bloodthirsty madman, and a fan of riddles and puns in
this story. "A real-life man with an even more grotesque taste for blood." This was his
favorite way to dispense the enemies hence helping him earn the name of Dracula, which in
terms then originated Vampire stories. Although some comic sources still say that "Dracula is
known for being the strongest vampire in the world".

(FUN FACT: Mary of Teck, who was grandmother to Britain's current ruler, Queen Elizabeth II,
and was queen during the reign of King George V. A Wurttemberg princess, Mary - the woman
for whom the liner Queen Mary was named - was believed descended from two of Vlad's sons.)

Jan Perkowiski defines a vampire as "a being which derives sustenance from a victim, who is
weakened by the experience. The sustenance may be physical or emotional." However, the term
vampire is more generally used in a more limited meaning to refer to the damned or the undead.
It is a living corpse or a soulless body that rises from the dead and consumes the blood of the
living. Vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures; in India, China, Malaysia,
Indonesia, and other parts of Southeast Asia, but mainly in Eastern Europe, among Slavs and
their neighbors, including Greeks, Romanians, Albanians, and others.
Vampires are undead beings who visit loved ones and cause mischief or deaths in the districts
where they live when living, according to European legend. In sharp contrast to today's gaunt,
pale Vampire, who dates from the early 1800s, they donned shrouds and were described as
bloated, reddish, or dark-skinned.

After tales of an 18th-century public frenzy of a pre-existing folk belief in the Balkans and
Eastern Europe, which in some cases resulted in bodies being staked and persons being accused
of vampirism, the name vampire was popularized in Western Europe. Local versions in Eastern
Europe were called shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece, and strigoi în România, among
other names.

In Poohří, the village of Blov lies a short distance from the town of Kada. The Benedictine abbot,
historian, and diplomat Jan Neplach made the first documented reference to this settlement in
1336. He talked about a municipal shepherd named Myslata who died and was buried. "In the
kingdom Bohemia, barely a mile from Kadaň in a village called Blov, a shepherd Myslata died.
He got up every night, walked around all the villages in the area, scared people, murdered, and
spoke incomprehensible language. And when they dug him up because he had to be burned, he
puffed like a bull and roared terribly, and when he was put on the fire, someone grabbed a stick,
stabbed him, and immediately blood spurted out of. Then, when he was exhumaned and placed
on the cart, he joined his legs together as if he were alive. When his body was burned, everything
calmed down." (Czech Archaeology News, 2021)

This was the story of Myslata of Blov, who was the first historically documented Vampire in
Europe.

In conjunction with the year 1344, Neplach mentions a similar case in his chronicle: "A woman
died in Levín (in the Litoměřice region or Levín near Beroun in central Bohemia) and was here
buried. However, after the funeral, she got up, strangled many people, and danced over each one.
And when she was pierced, blood flowed from her like from a living creature. She also ate more
than half of her own veil, and when he was torn from it, he was all bloodied. When it was to be
burned, the wood could not burn. They used a timber schingles from a church roof, according to
some old women. The fire then ignited. Even though she had been stabbed, she was still getting
up, but as soon as she was burned, all the suffering stopped." (Czech Archaeology News, 2021).

These were some eastern European fables, but there are many such beliefs or representations of
vampires in India as well. The different types of demons that exist in Indian mythology are
linked with vampires as there are some similar traits;

Vetala is thought to be the one who takes control of bodies in graves and haunts the residents of
the surrounding villages. As a result, they never die, just like any other vampire. Vetala was said
to be responsible for a slew of awful events, including child murder and miscarriages. They
appear to be trapped in a state known as 'the twilight zone,' which exists between life and
death—Vetala, who is neither totally dead nor entirely alive, shows complete resemblance to
vampires.

Rakshasa was thought to be a demon of some sort. They could transform into any creature they
wanted, from animals to monsters, and Rakshasi (female Rakshasa) could even transform into
gorgeous ladies to entice men. They, like vampires, are attracted to darkness and are repelled by
direct sunshine or light. They were said to prowl graves at night and do evil deeds. Agni (fire)
was employed to dispel the darkness and keep the Rakshasa at bay.

Peymakilir & Pey; Peymakilir and her male counterpart, Pey, would ruthlessly feast on human
victims, fulfilling the all-important bloodthirsty criterion of vampires. Peymakilir was notorious
for doing a ceremonial dance on the corpses, while Pey was infamous for drinking all of the
blood available in each body.

Pishacha are Hindu mythological animals with nocturnal and prowl cremation grounds at night.
They are also said to have the ability to change form and become invisible. They are also said to
be capable of possessing humans and driving them mad. With sunlight as an adversary, the
Pishacha resembles a typical vampire in many ways: it is dark-loving, blood-hungry, and looks
like a vampire doppelganger. These four were some links of vampires to the indian context.
Some people's books have many tricks and tactics to find or identify vampires, which is certainly
not putting vervain in the water system like Vampire Diaries. However, according to Romanian
tradition, a 7-year-old child and a white horse are required. The youngster should be clothed in
white, mounted on the horse, and released at midday at a cemetery. Watch the horse meander
around; whatever cemetery is closest to the horse when it comes to a halt is a vampire's grave —
or it may just have something appetizing nearby.

Though being bitten by a vampire is the traditional way to become a vampire in most modern
fiction, that is a fresh twist. "Often prospective revenants may be discovered at birth, generally
by some aberration, some flaw, like when a kid is born with teeth," folklorist Paul Barber said in
his book "Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality" (Yale, 2008).
Certain species are vampiric, such as leeches, lampreys, and vampire bats. In all of these
circumstances, the Vampire's goal is to draw just enough blood to keep him alive, not enough to
kill the host.

However, what about vampires who are human? There are a lot of self-identified vampires who
are into gothic-inspired subcultures. Others wear capes or receive vampire-fang dental implants,
while others conduct vampire-themed book clubs or covert bloodletting rituals. It is all terrifying
and exciting, but drinking blood is a different story. The issue is that blood is poisonous; because
it is so high in iron — and because the human body has trouble excreting excess iron — Anyone
who drinks blood regularly is in danger of developing haemochromatosis (iron overload), which
can result in a range of illnesses and disorders, including damage to the liver and neurological
system.

Physicists C. Efthimiou and S. Gandhi seek to prove that vampires and other monsters cannot
exist in a new piece titled Ghosts, Vampires, and Zombies: Cinema Fiction vs Physics Reality.
However, as we can see, their reasoning has a gaping hole in it large enough to drive a stake
through.
Vampires, according to legend, feed on human blood, and after sucking from a non-vampire
victim, the victim becomes a vampire for the rest of its life (or death, or living death, since it is
known that the vampires are the members of a larger class of night creatures called living dead).
To summarize, one feeding for one Vampire implies one human has died, and one Vampire has
entered the world. In this method, the simultaneous life (or death or...) of vampires and
non-vampires might be simulated by a series of differential equations in a discrete-time (e.g. with
monthly updates demographics):

h(t +1) = h(t) – c v(t)

v(t +1) = v(t) + c v(t)

The numbers of vampires and humans in the month t are v(t) and h(t), respectively. In contrast, c
is the average monthly bloodsucking frequency (i.e. the average number of non-vampires one
Vampire consumes in one month).

Starting conditions h(0) and v(0) must be known for the set of equations to be properly
formulated. In January 1600 (the authors propose this period as the rough date of the first serious
appearance of these dark monsters in mythology), there was only one Vampire versus 500
million non-vampires, which was the world population at the time, according to Efthimiou and
Gandhi. Another assumption is that vampires only drink blood once a month, which is a very
reasonable and cautious assumption, given that vampires may be seen eating all the time in
movies. This would imply that c = 1, and so v(t +1) = 2v, according to the stated model (t). As a
result of v(0)=1, we have the simple equation v(t)=2t. As a result, the vampire population
explodes!

As a result, since v(29) = 229 is more than 500 million, we may deduce that the human species
would cease to exist around two and a half years after the first Vampire appeared, or roughly
thirty years before Rene Descartes would think he is. Vampires, of course, would perish soon
after due to a lack of human blood.

On second thought, due to close encounters with stakes, garlic, and holy water, the model has not
accounted for the birth rate of non-vampires and the death rate of vampires (even the
death-death-rate since they are already finished, but when they die. Furthermore they should stay
dead but stop being alive). Vampires are also portrayed as greedy consumers without
consideration for a logical human resource management plan.
As ironic as all this is, it is possible that vampires did exist and still do; these are some of the fun
and interesting facts that I found throughout my research about vampires. Now I would like to
conclude this essay by saying that I hope that Vampires do exist so that I can turn one day.

References-

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