Vikramāditya and Betāla

The Bhavishya Mahā Purāṇa, in the Pratisarga Parva, second khaṇḍa, chapters 1 to 23, tells a cycle of stories about King Vikramāditya. They follow the form of the well-known Vaitāla-Pañcaviṃśikā. A Betāla (also written Vetāla or Baitāl), a spirit that clings to a corpse in the śmaśāna (cremation ground), tells stories and asks the king hard questions. If the king knows the answer and stays silent, his head will split. The Purāṇa says that this famous cycle, known across Bhārata as the Vetāla-Pañcaviṃśati or Baital Pachisi, has its first source in this text. The stories are about giving of oneself, duty, loyalty, wisdom, fitness for marriage, the highest place of truth, and what real heroism is.

The Betāla and Vikramāditya

The Betāla was a rudra-kiṃkara, a servant of Rudra, who appeared before Vikramāditya. In the frame of the cycle, Vikramāditya must carry the Betāla’s body on his shoulder through the night while the Betāla tells a story and asks a question. If the king knows the answer and stays silent, his head will split. If he answers, the Betāla flies back to the tree. Only when the king does not answer, because he truly does not know, does the Betāla stay.

The king cannot pretend not to know what he does know.

The first story: Rūpasena and Vīravara

The narrative

In the old city of Vardhamānapurī, King Rūpasena ruled with full commitment to dharma. His commander Vīravara served him with complete loyalty. One stormy midnight Vīravara heard a woman crying in the śmaśāna. He went to look and found Rājya-Lakshmī, the devī of the prosperity of the kingdom. She was weeping because death was coming for King Rūpasena at the end of the month.

Vīravara asked how the king’s death could be stopped. Rājya-Lakshmī told him: “If your son is given as a bali (an offering) to Caṇḍikā Devī, the king will be given a long life.”

Vīravara agreed without delay. He woke his family and went with them to the temple. He offered his son’s head to Caṇḍikā. When Vīravara’s daughter saw her brother’s cut head, she died of grief. When Vīravara’s wife saw both her children dead, she died too. Vīravara was now alone, with his dead family around him, and he got ready to offer his own life.

At that moment the king, who had been secretly watching all night, rushed into the shrine. He could not bear that such a price was being paid for his life. He bowed before Caṇḍikā and said: “I cannot live when the family of my faithful servant has died for me. Let me die first.”

The devī was deeply moved by both acts of devotion. She appeared and gave the king a long life. He asked for one thing only: “Bring Vīravara’s whole family back to life, but do not let him know that I was the one who asked.”

“Tathāstu (so be it),” said Caṇḍikā. All of Vīravara’s family rose up alive. The king slipped away. In the morning, when Rūpasena asked Vīravara about the events of the night, Vīravara answered lightly: “Nothing of importance, my king. It was a wandering spirit. I told it to go on its way.”

The Betāla’s question

“In this story both gave up so much. Whose act was greater, Vīravara’s or the king’s?”

Vikramāditya’s answer

“At first sight both look equally brave. But the king’s virtue is greater. Vīravara was a servant. To guard and serve his king was his dharma. Even his great act was the keeping of a duty he already had, and keeping one’s dharma earns its own puṇya. But the king had no duty at all. Nothing required him to risk his life for Vīravara’s family. He acted out of pure compassion and out of a sense of the debt he owed. When a person acts beyond all duty, only from the deepest part of the heart, that is the highest kind of giving.”

The full cycle of twenty-three chapters looks at many questions of right and wrong and of deeper meaning.

  • Mahādevī’s story (chapter 2): the daughter of a brāhmaṇa, and a woman’s loyalty in extreme conditions. It looks at the limits of pātivratya (a wife’s devotion) and svadharma (one’s own duty).
  • Triloka-Sundarī’s story (chapter 3): it carries the subtitle “The Propriety of Marriage Within One’s Own Varṇa”. It asks who truly suffers when anuloma (unequal) marriages take place.
  • The story of Dharmavallabha-Satya-Prakāśa (chapter 4): a king ruined by indulgence of the senses. The lesson is that a king who becomes a slave to his senses becomes the enemy of his own kingdom.
  • Harissvāmi’s story (chapter 5): a story of dharma under pressure.
  • Jīmūtavāhana’s story (chapter 6): the dharma of jīvana-dāna (the gift of life). Jīmūtavāhana’s readiness to give himself for another is a well-known theme across Sanskrit literature.
  • Guṇākara’s story (chapter 7): “The Importance of Single-Pointed Concentration in Sādhanā”. It shows the part the mind plays in deciding the fruit of any practice.
  • The story of the middle son (chapter 8): “Equal Love for All Children”. It looks at favouring one child over another in a family.
  • The story of the four fools (chapter 9): a funny story with serious meaning about wisdom and foolishness.
  • Padmāvatī’s story (chapter 10): the choices of a noble woman.
  • Madhumatī’s choice of husband (chapter 11): a woman’s right to judge well in choosing a husband. It looks at fitness for each other, wisdom and worth.

The wider tradition

The Pratisarga Parva says plainly that the famous Vaitāla-Pañcaviṃśikā tradition has its first source in this khaṇḍa. That tradition is known in all regions of Bhārata and exists in many literary forms, including Somadeva’s Kathāsaritsāgara. The stories of the Pratisarga Parva are given as the original store of narratives, about dharma, svadharma, giving of oneself and good judgement, from which the popular retellings draw.

Sources

  • Bhavishya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Introduction (the frame; the wider tradition)
  • Bhavishya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Chapter 1 (Rūpasena and Vīravara)
  • Bhavishya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Chapters 2 to 11 (the other stories)
  • Bhavishya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Chapters 1 to 23 (the full cycle)