How Vikram met Betal(vikarm betal)

Thousands of years ago, in a prosperous kingdom, with its capital at Ujjain, lived a very noble and wise king by the name of Vikramaditya. King Vikramaditya was ideal in every way-he was brave, fearless, strong-willed and generous. He loved adventure as much as he loved learning. Every morning, visitors came to his court and offered him gifts which the king accepted respectfully. Among his visitors was a mendicant who would visit the king daily. His regular routine was to courteously offer a fruit to the king. And each morning the king would accept this offering of reverence and hand it over to the royal storekeeper for safe-keeping. This had become a ritual. One day, something strange happened As usual, the mendicant offered his fruit to King Vikramaditya. However, just when he was doing so, the fruit split open.

To the king's surprise, a precious ruby fell from inside it. How did the ruby get inside the fruit, wondered the king? Do all the fruits offered to him earlier have precious stones • embedded in them? Intrigued, he got them all checked and was surprised to find that indeed each fruit contained precious gems.

Overcome with curiosity, the king sent summons to the mendicant. When he was sent for, the mendicant refused to obey the royal summons. Instead, he sent word back that he wished to meet King Vikramaditya at the cremation ground on the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month. He specified the location of their meeting-an ancient banyan tree right in the center of the cremation ground.

Always the one to keep his promise, the king met the mendicant on the pre-decided date and enquired about his intention. 'Listen well, O King!' said the mendicant. 'There is a task which only one as brave and as intelligent as you can perform. You must go to the ancient peepul (banyan) tree to the north of this huge ground. There you will find a corpse hanging from its branches. Your task is to get that corpse for me. I would then practice certain rites on it and gain special occult powers.

But the condition of this task was strict. Once the corpse was removed from the tree by the king, he would then need to carry it on his shoulders and walk all the way to the cremation ground without speaking a word. Legend has it that. the noble king did keep his vow of making his way to the ancient banyan tree and did fling the corpse on his back, and began the tedious journey, but could never complete the task. Why?

Because each time he started his journey, the corpse-which was that of the talkative vampire Betal, would begin narrating a story to the king. At the end of each fascinating tale, Betal woutd pose a riddle and command the king to reply or he would smash his head into a thousand pieces.

The learned King Vikramaditya did know the answers to the riddles posed by Betal, so he would go ahead and answer each one of them. Thus, each time, his vow of silence would be broken and the mendicant's condition would remain unfulfilled. And as soon as Vikramaditya replied, Betal would cackle and fly back to his tree, leaving the distraught king just a few steps away from his destination.

But the resolute king would rush back after the vampire and pull him down from the tree and carry him on his back once again. Thus, the incident took place twenty-five times and that accounts for the twenty-five stories. At the end of the twenty-fifth story, King Vikramaditya is unable to answer the baffling question. Cackling away, Betal furiously shakes his white locks and agrees to be taken to the mendicant, who had been impatiently waiting for them at the cremation ground.

At last, when King Vikramaditya remained silent and could not answer the final riddle, Betal realized that the king’s wisdom had reached its limit in that moment. True to his word, Betal did not fly back to the tree. Instead, he stayed quietly on the king’s shoulder as they moved toward the cremation ground. The long and tiring journey was finally nearing its end.

However, Betal was not merely a mischievous spirit; he was also wise and perceptive. As they approached the banyan tree where the mendicant awaited, Betal spoke in a calm yet serious tone. He warned the king that the mendicant was not what he appeared to be. His intention was not noble, but selfish and dangerous. He planned to sacrifice King Vikramaditya to gain immense occult powers. Betal explained that the ritual required a brave and powerful king as an offering, and Vikramaditya had unknowingly been led into this trap.

Hearing this, the king did not panic. His courage and presence of mind remained steady. He thanked Betal for revealing the truth and quickly devised a plan to outsmart the mendicant. When they reached the cremation ground, the mendicant greeted the king with false respect and asked him to place the corpse on the ground. He then instructed Vikramaditya to bow down before the corpse as part of the ritual.

The wise king immediately understood that this was the moment of danger. Pretending ignorance, he politely said that he did not know the proper way to bow and requested the mendicant to demonstrate it first. Blinded by greed and overconfidence, the mendicant agreed. As soon as he bent down to show the ritual, Vikramaditya swiftly drew his sword and struck him down, ending his evil plan instantly.

The gods and celestial beings, who had been observing the entire event, were pleased with the king’s bravery, intelligence, and righteousness. They appeared before him and blessed him for his wisdom and courage. Betal, too, expressed his admiration for Vikramaditya. He acknowledged that the king was not only strong but also just and clever enough to overcome even the most difficult challenges.

In the end, King Vikramaditya returned safely to his kingdom. The experiences with Betal became legendary, and the twenty-five stories told by the spirit were remembered for generations. Each tale carried a moral lesson, teaching the importance of justice, intelligence, honesty, and courage.

Thus, the story of Vikram and Betal is not just a collection of entertaining tales but also a guide to wise thinking and moral decision-making. It reminds us that true strength lies not only in physical power but also in the ability to think clearly, act wisely, and stand for what is right, even in the face of danger.