A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

In Busk’s version of the Well-and-wise-walking Khan cycle, Siddhî-kür is the powerful dead being whom the prince must bring to Nâgârguna as restitution for killing seven magicians. The frame describes a golden upper body, emerald lower body, mother-of-pearl head and shining crown. He lives among the child-dead and escapes upward into a mango tree when pursued.

Threatening the tree with an axe brings him down; the prince binds him inside a many-coloured sack. The journey depends on silence. Siddhî-kür repeatedly tells stories that provoke an exclamation, whereupon he flies away and the capture must begin again. His power therefore operates through narration and the listener’s response as well as through bodily escape.

At the conclusion the prince finally listens without speaking and delivers him. Nâgârguna places the mighty dead in a grove on a southern Indian mountain, where Busk’s text calls him Siddhitu-Altan and links his presence with the land’s prosperity. This is the named figure in this literary transmission, not a separate claim about every Indian vetala or Tibetan corpse-story cycle.

Storytelling mighty deadSource-specific narrative
01

Origins & earliest records

Kalmouk tale cycle as presented by Rachel Harriette Busk

02

Records & interpretation

Complete relevant tale or frame passages directly read in the 1873 textual witness.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Sagas from the Far East

    Rachel Harriette Busk, compiler and adapter · 1873

    Dedication, pp. 1–10; Tale III, pp. 36–37, 53; conclusion, p. 229

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

Rachel Harriette Busk, Sagas from the Far East (1873)

Saga of the Well-and-wise-walking Khan. Dedication, pp. 1–10; Tale III, pp. 36–37, 53; conclusion, p. 229

Full relevant narrative read from cached Gutenberg historical text; preface read for transmission limits. Primary evidence of this published adaptation, not proof of the described supernatural events. No modern translation quoted.

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical literary adaptationBusk, Sagas from the Far East (1873), Dedication, pp. 1–10; Tale III, pp. 36–37, 53; conclusion, p. 229Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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