This week we’re back with Vikram and Betaal. We’ll see why, when you are the King, you should be careful who you delegate a task to. They might do exactly the opposite of what you intend.
The character this week has a lasso, just like Wonder Woman’s, but this one is made of snakes! And his ride is a Crocodile fish! All the association with aquatic creatures make sense since he is after all the God of the Sea!
If you haven’t heard the previous Vikram and Betaal Episodes – that’s still okay. Because all of the stories are standalone. I do recommend checking out Episode 5 – Kingly Duties though, because there’s some background information on why Vik and the Vampire were on their rinse and repeat cycle.
Here’s a short version: there was once a wise king called Vikramaditya. Once a rishi gave him a gift every day – a precious gem disguised as a fruit.
To repay the gifts, the king agreed to fulfill the Rishi’s very simple wish of fetching him a Betaal from the crematorium. A Betaal in case you don’t know is a reanimated corpse though in some translations, it has been approximated to a Vampire.
The Betaal mostly loved hanging around in a tree by hanging down from it, like a bat. He did not want to be captured. The only way he could escape though was if the king said something. So the Betaal told stories to the king, and those stories were all lateral thinking puzzles that tricked the king into speaking. The King was smart enough to know the answer but not smart enough to hold his tongue.
There are 25 such stories because Vikramaditya though wise doesn’t learn from previous iterations. The Betaal did make it easy for Vik by always flying back to the very same branch on the same tree so he was easily captured again.
This week’s story begins right after the last one.
The Betaal was back in his tree again. Vik climbed the tree again, captured him again, and was carrying him to the rishi across the crematorium again.
The Betaal started with the same premise as on previous occasions – “hey it’s a long walk across the crematorium”
It was obviously not a long walk, but Vik didn’t reply. Because if he did, the Betaal could escape back to his tree.
The Betaal continued “Let me tell you a story to pass the time”.
This story is about a King. The King, let’s call him Kumar, was a good administrator but a little bit distracted at times
He had recently succeeded to the throne, and so far things were going well. Except he didn’t have a queen. And he needed one – you know for all the social events and the alliance building and trading with other nations and stuff.
These were ancient times that we’re talking about. So a potential candidate for Queen would be judged mostly by her looks and her pedigree.
The King had his people prepare a list – all the noble bachelorettes in his Kingdom were on it.
The next thing he wanted was to filter these down to the best. The King saw this part as a bit of a formality really. In his mind, he already knew who would emerge as the best in the list. There was a lady, let’s call her Suroop, who was well known for her beauty. He hadn’t actually seen Suroop before, but that didn’t matter. He knew many artists and poets had based their greatest works on Suroop. And that had to mean something.
Nevertheless, the Kingdom’s protocol had to be followed and he must give everyone else on the list at least a fighting chance.
So he handed the list over to his palace maid and asked her to go on a scouting trip.
Satya, the palace maid had earned King Kumar’s trust by being honest and smart as well. She interviewed every single lady on the list and in stealth mode. So the ladies never realized they were interviewing for the Full-time position of Queen of the land! That basically meant Satya couldn’t ask to see their resume and skipped the typical strengths and weaknesses questions as well.
After Satya met every one of the ladies there was no doubt in her mind that Suroop was way more beautiful than everyone else. She was in a class of her own!
But the maid didn’t rush back to the King and congratulate him on his choice. She was deep in thought. Finally, she came to a painful realization. There was no doubt that the King would be completely captivated by Suroop’s beauty. He would neglect to rule his kingdom, and spend entire days and nights together only with Suroop. Normally a little bit of delegating would have been good for everyone, but with Suroop as Queen, the King would ignore all else! There would be anarchy if the King neglected his duties!
She decided she must make the decision that was right for the Kingdom, even if it was the wrong decision for the King personally. She decided on another lady on the list who was more or less 50th percentile. Let’s call her Rani.
The maid reported back to King Kumar that Rani was definitely the right choice for the position of Queen.
“What about Suroop?” asked the King.
The maid was silent. And then finally said “Oh I’m sure she’s all beautiful on the inside” before lapsing back into silence.
King Kumar sighed. Between dozens of courtiers who attested to Suroop’s beauty and Satya’s testimony whom was he going to trust? Of course, he would trust Satya, just as Satya knew he would.
Alright, Kumar would marry Rani instead.
The wedding was announced and invites were sent out. Rani, who readily agreed to the wedding, now busied herself picking the decor of her future palace rooms.
Suroop’s parents had secretly been hoping that she would marry the King. But now that was not to be. So they lost no time in arranging her marriage to the next most eligible bachelor.
Suroop’s fiance was a general in King Kumar’s army called Mahaan which literally means Noble.
Being a general in the army was a pretty solid position to be in.
I don’t just mean having a taxpayer-funded villa with a three chariot garage for all the siren-equipped horse-drawn chariots.
One of the perks was that as the General’s significant other you got to go to royal parties. That’s where Suroop went. Over the chips and dip she ran into the King. Her beauty astounded the King who was seeing her for the very first time.
And that was how the whole can of worms was opened up. King Kumar wanted to know who she was and was immediately told that that was Suroop, General Mahaan’s fiancee.
Kumar did what leaders do when confronted by something like this. He gathered Satya, Suroop, and Mahaan into a conference room to talk about their awkward situation.
Satya blurted out the truth, including her motive for hiding the truth about Suroop’s beauty.
As soon as Mahaan realized where this was going, he quickly volunteered to break off the engagement so that Kumar and Suroop could marry.
Kumar wouldn’t hear any of it. He commanded Suroop and Mahaan to continue on whether their wedding plans. As for Satya, he would punish her.
“That’s where I’ll end my story” said the Betaal. “Answer two questions for me Vicky old boy.
What should Satya’s punishment be? And whose sacrifice was nobler? Mahaan’s? Or King Kumar’s?”
Vik had the answer ready of course. “Satya should not be punished at all. She acted with the best of intentions. Her loyalty was to the Kingdom, not to the King. And don’t let any leader of any nation convince you otherwise.
As for what you called “sacrifice” – I refuse to recognize it as such. Was it right for Kumar to decide on a Queen on beauty alone? Was it right for Mahaan and Kumaar to sit in a room and decide Suroop’s life for her? Why doesn’t she have a voice in her own future?”
The Betaal replied “why! Your answers are even better than what I had in mind. The times are changing indeed. An ancient me would have accepted a completely misogynistic answer.
But all that’s beside the point. What matters is now that you spoke! I’m freeee!”
The Betaal flew back to his hangout in the tree.
Vik will go back and get him of course but that’s for a later episode.
Notes
The names of the characters in the Betaal’s story are Hindi words. Kumar means boy or young man, but it also sometimes means “Bachelor”.
The word “Rani” means Queen. “Suroop” means beautiful. And “Mahaan” means “Noble” because the original story portrayed his action as a noble one though you and I might disagree.
Finally, Satya, the untruthful maid. Satya means the “truth”, I picked that just for a bit of contrast. But another way of explaining that is that she is truthful in the end. And her lie is motivated by a higher purpose.
The original story had Vik declare Mahaan to be the nobler given that he was sacrificing his life and the life of his fiancee for the King’s sake. But it is not noble to make Suroop’s life choices for her. It’s also not very noble for the King to order two people to be married. For all he knew, Suroop had probably changed her mind about marrying a man who was ready to call off their engagement just because the King took a fancy to her.
The Character of the Week
The character this week has a lasso, just like Wonder Woman’s, but this one is made of snakes! And his ride is a Crocodile fish!
Varun is the God of the Sea! His Crocodile Fish joins the list of unusual fish species we’ve encountered on this podcast, including the Unicorn Fish, the Rainbow Fish. We’ll talk about the Crocodile fish another time though. Let’s talk about Varun. Varun is one of the oldest gods in Indian mythology. He’s the God not just of the Sea, but also the Sky, Clouds, Rain. In effect he’s responsible for the water cycle on Earth.
In some variations of the tales, Varun was an Asura who became a Dev. Read more about the famous Asuras and Devs rivalry in Episode 27 – The Rise of Shukra.
Strangely similar to the Greek God Poseidon, Varun also was sometimes associated with horses just like Poseidon. And not just Sea-horses – I mean land horses.
Varuna has a thousand eyes, so he can see everywhere.
His noose made of Snakes. Once it binds someone its quite unbreakable just like Wonder Woman’s lasso.
We’ve briefly encountered Varuna before as one of the Gods that gifted Hanuman in Episode 25 – Up, Up and Away. Varuna makes an appearance in the Ramayana, but we’ll cover that in a future Ramayana episode.
If you’re wondering how the state of Kerala and the area of Konkan was created, it was Varuna! This was at the request of Parashuram – an avatar of Vishnu we’ve met before
Check out some of the pictures:
Painting of Varuna
Shrine in Tokyo, Japan
Painting from Japan
Parshuram and Varuna
Varuna and Rama
Varuna statue from Karnataka
Statue from Rajarani Temple, Odisha
That’s all for this week.
Next Week
Next week we’ll see do the Indian mythology version of Sleeping Beauty in which I play a pretty important role! There’s no princess in this one, instead, there are a couple of brothers. And spoiler alert: there’s no witch who can transform into an evil fire-breathing dragon.
The character next week is not one single person. Instead it’s a role! There are 7 people who have occupied this role, one of whom we encountered in our very first episode – “Unicorn Fish”
I’ll see you next week!