Vetalapanchavimshati, the 25 stories of Vetala
Main Story of Vetala
Vetalapanchavimshati,or the 25 stories of Vetala,or Betala,is a very important, and amusing story collection of ancient India, commonly called Vikram and Vetal stories.Originally,it forms a part of Kathasaritsagara,a huge eleventh century story collection of ancient India, from Kashmir.It is a Sanskrit rendering of Brihatkatha,a much earlier story collection written in Paishachi prakrit language, which is no longer extant.Kathasaritsagara, written by the Kashmir poet Somadeva,is one of the three Sanskrit renderings of the Brihatkatha, the other two being,Kshemendra's(again of Kashmir) Brihatkathamanjari,and Budhaswamin's(of Nepal)Brihatkathashlokasangraha.Kshemendra's Brihatkathamanjari also has Vetala stories, but Brihatkathashlokasangraha doesn't have.Apart from these two,two poets called Shivadasa and Jambhaladatta wrote two versions of Vetala stories in Sanskrit,with some extra stories and some deletions from the Kathasaritsagara.The Bhavishya purana also narrates Vikram and Vetal stories, same as the Kathasaritsagara.Thus,we have five versions of Vetala stories.Apart from these,there is a Buddhist version of Vetala stories too, called Suvarnavetalakatha,or the golden Vetala stories, which we shall see later.The Vetala stories have been translated to Hindi(where they are called Baital pacchisi), Kannada,Telugu,Tamil and many other languages repeatedly.The popular story magazine Chandamama immortalised the Vetala stories by taking its concept and creating thousands of stories for about sixty years.A Hindi serial, Vikram aur Betal was also aired long back.Many books are available today giving these Betal stories,but since they are generally written for children, some modifications are made,and some stories are not given.Hence, the original twenty five stories are not known to many.The common concept of all these stories is that a Shakti,or spirit called Vetala or Betala enters a dead body and speaks through it.When Vikram is carrying the dead body for a purpose, the Vetala speaks through it and narrates an amusing story so that he should not feel the tiredness.At the end of the story,Vetal asks a puzzling question and tells him that if he doesn't answer even on knowing the answer,his head would burst into hundred pieces.If Vikram would speak the Vetal would carry away the dead body and he had to endeavor again to bring it back.This goes on for twenty five times and hence twenty five stories, together called Vetalapanchavimshati.
Now let's see why Vikram had to bring the dead body, which is the main story or the frame story.
Once there ruled a king called Trivikramasena in the city called Pratishthana,on the banks of the river Godavari.Being as powerful as Lord Indra,he was very famous.Once,a mendicant called Kshantisheela started coming everyday to his court and would give him a fruit.The king would give that fruit to his treasurer.One day,as usual, when the mendicant gave the fruit and returned,by destiny,as the king gave it to his treasurer,it slipped from his hand,and fell down.A pet monkey which had come there caught it and began eating it.When it cut the fruit,a valuable jewel came out! Surprised, the king asked the treasurer the other fruits.The treasurer said all of them were thrown by him into the treasury from the window.The king asked him to go and see them.He went, and coming back,told the king that all had decayed, and a heap of glowing jewels were expelled out! Happy at this, the king gave the jewels to the treasurer himself.The next day,he enquired the mendicant the purpose of offering so many jewels to him.The mendicant said that he wanted a help from the king, and when the king promised him to help,he told him to come to the graveyard alone on the fourteenth night of the dark fortnight.The king agreed and went to the graveyard on that night alone, with a sword in his hand.The mendicant was preparing for performing a ritual.When the king met him,he told him to get a dead body hanging from a shimshapa or the coral tree in the southern direction, but silently without speaking a word.The king agreed and went to the coral tree.Seeing the hanging dead body, he climbed the tree and felled the dead body.But strangely, the dead body cried loudly as if alive! The king sprang down and wishing it to be alive, touched it.The corpse laughed loudly.The king understood that there was a Vetala in the corpse and commanded it to go away.The next moment, the corpse sprung up and hung up in the tree! Again the king climbed the tree and with great difficulty brought down the corpse, and putting it on his shoulder,walked on silently.Now the Vetala in the corpse said he would narrate a story to him so that he would not feel tiredness,and began his first story.
