Vikram-Betaal – Night Watchman – {Ep.201} – Stories From India – Podcast

A Vikram-Betaal story about a security guard who charges a little extra, but is worth every paisa. Also mystical doomsday predictions and people acting rashly

Introduction

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

In this episode, we’re back to Vikram and Betaal. 

We have covered a number of Vikram and Betaal stories before and we’ve also covered some of the Singhasan Battisi – though that does not feature Raja Vikram or his Betaal, it does feature his throne, and it  has a similar framework. You can find the links to previous Vikram Betaal as well as Singhasan Battisi stories in the show notes. But nothing to worry about – if you haven’t heard those. Because like many episodes on this show – this one too, stands alone. The only context you need is the framing narrative. And I’ll give you a quick summary of that now.

Vikramaditya was a pretty well known and well respected King. His people appreciated him, by giving him gifts. One of them was a Rishi, or a wise man. The Rishi gave Vik a mango everyday. Vik didn’t really think much of it until one day when he accidentally discovered that each of those mangoes contained a massive and valuable gem inside. Naturally, Vik felt obligated to pay the Rishi back somehow. And that’s precisely what the Rishi wanted. He explained to Vik that he needed Vik’s help to complete a special prayer. The one missing ingredient was a Betaal. 

In case you haven’t heard the term before – a Betaal is a reanimated corpse. Some early members from colonial times loosely translated a Betaal to a Vampire. But obviously they had no idea of the full spectrum of creatures in Indian Mythology. You could say the term Zombie is closer, except that Betaals could also talk lucidly and could fly, and didn’t just go looking for brains. All Betaals did mostly was to hang down from trees like a bat. And they preferred Pipal trees in a cemetery. And that’s where the Rishi wanted Vik to go Betaal-shopping. For reasons the Rishi did not disclose, Vik had to go fetch the Betaal from the tree in the middle of the night, all alone. Well, Vik didn’t get to where he was by being a coward, so he accepted the Rishi’s request without question.

Despite largely just sitting on a throne all day, he had no trouble switching to athletic mode. He climbed the tree, and grabbed the Betaal. But when he was making his way back to the Rishi, the Betaal told him a story. It was a story that had a question in the end. The kind of deep question that Vik could not resist answering. The only problem was that every time Vik opened his mouth to speak, Betaal was able to escape and fly away. This happened over and over. It may seem like Vik wasn’t learning from experience and wasn’t keeping his mouth shut. But the Betaal wasn’t learning from experience either, because he kept going back to exactly the same spot as before. This happened 25 times – the Betaal told him 25 stories and always with the same outcome. We’ve covered eight of those stories before. 

This ninth story begins the same way as the others. With Vik walking across the cemetery with the Betaal on his back. The Betaal normally would have remarked something about the weather, but ninth time in, they were both past such ice-breakers.

The Betaal launched straight away into the story.

Long long time ago, in a kingdom far far away, there was a job search going on. The position was that of a security guard. This wouldn’t be the only guard at the city gates, and the city seemed to be doing just fine despite the vacancy. So it shouldn’t have been such a big deal. But the King, Rupsen, put an extraordinary amount of personal effort in his attempts to fill this position.

His minister noticed this and tried to put a halt to it. He tried to hint that there were boxes of paperwork that were waiting for him. He had so many things to do – raising taxes on the poor, playing golf, having some people executed for frivolous reasons. But Rupsen wasn’t interested in mundane things like that. He insisted on personally reviewing each resume and conducting each interview.

“I’m afraid you’ve gone mad with power, your highness,” the minister said.

“Of course!” the king replied. “Have you tried going mad without power? No one listens to you and they force you in a white padded cell”

Which was a fair point. So the minister accepted it and handed him a thick packet of resumes.

Rupsen read each and tossed them everywhere with his evaluation of those candidates. “Addicted to sports”, “Doesn’t have a mustache”, “Has a beard”, “His kurta is too short”, “Is allergic to shiny marble floors”, “Has too many pets at home”.

The minister thanked his lucky stars that he had come into his current position through nepotism, rather than having to beat this King’s resume scrutiny.

Another resume stack gone. But when the minister went to throw out the box, he found a last one. He’d have quietly thrown that one away, except the King saw him.

The King read this resume a lot more favorably than the others. “Hmm, not bad. He can deadlift a chariot, horses included. He’s won 3 olympic gold medals for running, javelin throwing and wrestling. I guess he doesn’t meet our minimum threshold of 4 olympic golds, but I’m in a generous mood. Bring in this guy”

All the candidates were waiting outside. The minister ushered in Ram Prasad Dashrath Prasad Sharma and dismissed everyone else. But at least they got a participation certificate for all the waiting they had to do.

Inside, Rupsen looked skeptically at his only candidate. “You don’t look 7 feet tall.”

“I am seven feet tall, your majesty!” Ram Prasad Dasharath Prasad Sharma replied. “This being ancient India there’s no universal standard for measuring a foot. Indeed, according to my little son, I’m 10 feet tall. So I polled everyone I know what they thought my height was and just averaged it”

“Well well, at least you’re data driven. That’s good. Now what salary are you expecting?”

“A hundred gold coins, your majesty!”

The King was astonished, and that was even before Ram Prasad added “every month”. He expected a hundred gold coins every month.

In a clear demonstration of how arbitrary decision making in Ancient Indian Kingdoms could be, Rupsen agreed. And Ram Prasad Dasharath Prasad Sharma walked out with a bagful of coins before he had guarded the city gates for even a single minute.

The minister, who had just finished picking up his jaw off the floor, humbly requested that the King consider him for the night watchman post. The minister would no longer get to work in the palace, but to offset that he’d have a considerable pay bump. But the King refused flat out. “I’m just testing him out. We have a fire-at-will clause in our employment contract. I only agreed because I wanted to see what he’s going to do with the money. Now bring me my secret disguise, will you?”

Not the batman one, you know that is strictly for international trips. Bring me the poor beggar one. I’m going to follow our new watchman.

So the King did. Even if Ram Prasad Dasharath Prasad Sharma wasn’t 7 feet tall, he was taller than average. So it was easy for the disguised King to spot him in the crowd.

The night watchman went to a temple first, where he donated half his earnings. Then he donated various amounts of what was remaining to various charities – the Give foundation, the Care foundation, Child Rights and You. He was left with a small fraction of what he started with. He was left with only 4 gold coins. Which he used to feed his family.

The King thought this was clever of Ram Prasad Dashrath Prasad Sharma. By donating to all those charities and to the temple, he had guaranteed his family a hefty tax deduction.

He went away satisfied for now.

Nothing much happened for a few weeks. Rupsen, though, continued to spy on the guard. He wanted to make sure he was getting his money’s worth. The King had come to the conclusion that Ram Prasad Dasharath Prasad Sharma was a capable guard. He paced back and forth at the city gates, he checked the locks every hour. Checked the wells for any grappling hooks. He would have checked the intruder detection infrared beams if they’d been there. And as far as the King knew no houses were getting burgled, no foreign spies were sneaking in to steal secret documents – that he knew about. But at the same time, there wasn’t anything extra or special that the guard was contributing. So he’d made up his mind to give Ram Prasad a pay cut the next day. Or to dismiss him from service. He wasn’t sure yet. Maybe he’d flip a coin in the morning. For now though, Rupsen wanted to go back to bed. All the secret stakeout had left him tired. He hoped to get at least a couple of hours of sleep before his administrative duties the next day.

But just when he was about to turn back towards the palace, there was a crying sound. Ram Prasad had heard it too, and he dashed to the source. It was a richly dressed lady who had a sort of aura about her. She was in a chariot that was hovering above the ground. But she was crying!

Ram Prasad asked her why, and the lady replied that she was the Goddess of Luck. And she was crying because Rupsen was going to die in a month.

Ram Prasad was shocked. And so was Rupsen. He had followed his guard and was now observing them from behind a tree.

Ram Prasad was a little skeptical. He asked to see the Goddess’s identity card, and her driving license, and registration for her flying chariot. He also made sure it was a real flying chariot and it didn’t have any strings attached.

“Okay, I believe you now,” the guard told the Goddess. “Sorry for having doubted you. It just pays to be careful in my profession”

The Goddess of Luck said that she completely understood. But anyway she had better get going. She had a busy schedule.

“But wait” Ram Prasad called out. “Tell me, is there a way to prevent this?”

“Well, yes. But the only way to do it is if you push your son into a bottomless abyss. If you do that, and if he goes willingly, Rupsen will live a very long life. Don’t ask me why, I don’t make these rules, I just enforce them. Now I really have to go, I’ve got three more kingdoms to visit before dawn”

This was a terrible choice that Ram Prasad had to make. At the end of his shift, he went home with a heavy heart. Rupsen followed him of course. He observed from the open window as Ram Prasad explained to his family that they had to go right now. They were making a trip to the nearby bottomless pit in the middle of the forest, near the abandoned temple. They called a cab to take them there. All the while the King followed.

Ram Prasad’s daughter said “Papa, don’t look now, but I think we’re being followed”

Ram Prasad said “Oh don’t worry about him. He’s just Rupsen’s spy who’s been keeping an eye on me for so many weeks. I was going to arrest him the first time I spotted him spying on me. But then I saw him go into the palace using the secret entrance. And he knew the secret pin code. He’s probably in the King’s inner circle or something”

So they ignored Rupsen, not realizing that he was in fact the King.

When they got to the pit, Ram Prasad explained what he had heard from the Goddess.

His wife and daughter thought that was crazy. He wasn’t seriously considering pushing his boy into this pit, was he?

Well he was. And what’s more, the boy agreed that yeah. For his King and Country he would gladly jump in. Before Ram Prasad’s wife and daughter could say much more, he pushed his happily smiling boy into the pit.

The girl screamed and wailed for her brother. He had been her only friend in the world. She couldn’t be separated from her dear brother. So before her parents could do anything to stop her, she jumped into the pit as well.

There was no sound of either the boy or the girl reaching the bottom, so maybe it truly was bottomless.

Things went from bad to worse. Ram Prasad’s wife hopped in as well – she couldn’t imagine a life without her children. And lastly, Ram Prasad himself. His family was everything to him. He didn’t see a point. And now he had the Goddess’s assurance that his King would live long.

And that was completely invalidated when the King himself got ready to jump in. He couldn’t stand the thought of all these innocent lives that were sacrificed for his sake. But just as he was about to, the Goddess intervened. She had rushed to the scene. She’d been unable to stop the others, but she was in time to stop Rupsen. 

Rupsen was determined to follow Ram Prasad and his family into the pit unless the Goddess brought them back somehow.

The Goddess did that, because she was a Goddess she could in fact bring them back. And so she did. 

“Which made all the sacrifice pointless, wouldn’t you say?” The Betaal asked Vikram.

Vikram didn’t say anything.

“But Vik – the real question I have for you is – whose action was the most foolish? Surely it’s Ram Prasad’s daughter right? Because if she hadn’t the others would all have been okay,”

But Vik disagreed. “No, it’s the King’s action that was the most unreasonable one. The boy was just doing what he thought was right. His sister too. Ram Prasad’s wife made a decision based on the loss of her children. 

Ram Prasad was a little different from his family members. He could have chosen not to jump into the pit. After all, family wasn’t actually everything to him. His actions showed that he did put his King and Country above the life of his son. You could argue that his earlier decision to accept what the Goddess told him also showed gullibility. Clearly, the Goddess didn’t need a sacrifice, why not negotiate some terms with her? Or try to find out how Rupsen was going to die, and try to prevent his death. The Goddess seemed like a nice person – unlikely she would go all out in trying to have Rupsen killed – “Final Destination” style. If you’re familiar with the Hollywood movie”

The Betaal said he was not, but to please continue. How was the King’s action the most foolish of the lot?

The King tried to jump into the pit. This wasn’t a clever trick just to get the Goddess to bring back Ram Prasad and his family. He actually was going to jump in. That was foolish because that would have made the family’s sacrifice completely meaningless. When does it make sense for a King to endanger himself for just one of his subjects?

The Betaal said. I’m really really glad you brought that up, Vik. That will make our future conversation a lot simpler. Anyway, you’ve been speaking, so I’m off now. I’ll see you in a bit back on the tree.

The Betaal was indeed hinting at something when he referenced their future conversation. But we won’t get to that until after the 25th story. Or maybe we’ll cover the end first, and come back to the remaining stories. I haven’t quite decided yet.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Here are the links to previous Vikram Betaal stories:
Episode 5 – Kingly duties
Episode 8 – Vik and the Vampire Redux
Episode 32 – The Call of Duty
Episode 34 – A Damsel in Distress
Episode 56 – The Three Sherlocks
Episode 95 – Vikram-Betaal – The Blame Game is Afoot
Episode 110 – Vikram-Betaal – The Bachelorette
Episode 146 – Vikram-Betaal – Princess Indumati’s Swayamvar

There’s also the Singhasan Battisi series which we have covered a couple of times. It’s related to this one in the sense that there is a framing narrative and a sequence of stories told to a King. King Bhoja, who wanted to sit on a throne, and each of the 32 statues on the Throne told him a story. The other connection there is that the throne belonged to Vik, and was a gift from Indra, the Chief of the Devs who wanted to reward Vik. What Bhoja needed to decide before he ran out of stories and those storytelling statues was – did Vik owe his wisdom to the throne, or did he have to be wise already to qualify to sit on the throne.

Previous Singhasan Battisi stories:
The Twilight Throne – Singhasan Battisi – {Ep.124}
Vikramaditya’s Guests – Singhasan Battisi – {Ep.136}
Singhasan Battisi – Indra’s Bet – Ep.164- Stories From India
Singhasan Battisi – The Deer Prince – {Ep.188} – Stories From India – Podcast

Vik has also featured in other stories. That we have not yet covered on the podcast. Notably one featuring a long courtship with the Princess of China, which many of you have asked about. But we’ll get to that in the future.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll talk about how and why Lanka was created. The story features not just Ravana, but a few surprising characters including Shiva and Parvati. And Mayasura – whom some of you wanted to hear about. Whether it was Mayasura or Vishwakarma who should get the credit for Lanka’s construction – well – we’ll talk about that next week.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Thanks Aarush, Rez, Ani Kar, Vaishnavi for the feedback. Bindu – I’ll get to the story about Vikram and the Princess of China, in a few weeks.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or tweet @sfipodcast, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!