Quite a few times, when someone calls “Hey Vikram”, he
or she unknowingly adds “so where is Vetaal”. Such deep rooted is connection
between Vikram-Vetaal (or Baital) in minds of Indians. Thanks to Chandamama (originators
Chakrapani and Nagi Reddy to be precise) and Ramananda Sagar’s TV serial “Vikram
aur Vetaal”, every average Indian tends to relate Vetaal with Vikram.
As avid reader since childhood I was also fascinated
by stories in Chandoba (in Marathi or Chandamama commonly). Vikram-Vetaal
stories made regular appearance in it, but I never cared to check their origin.
Now that curiosity had dawned upon me, I started searching. I checked with some
literature-fan friends but without success and then googled it.
Originally called “Baital Pachisi” they are
compilation of 25 Sanskrit stories attributed to Somadeva who compiled katha-sarita-sagara
(ocean of stories) in about 11th century based on earlier traditional
stories.
King Vikram (or Vikramaditya) is historically dated
back to 1st century BC as ruler of Ujjain (currently in Madhya
Pradesh, India).
Story in brief is that king Vikram is asked to capture
Vetaal by a tantric. After lot of struggle Vikram was successful in capturing
Vetaal. On their way out of forest Vetaal started telling stories that posed
some moral or practical question at the end of each story. Condition was that
Vikram should not speak. But Vikram answers the question out of ego and Vetaal went
back to his forest tree in protest. This pattern of capture and release
continued on 24 occasions. Hence its collection of 25 stories (pachisii). Various
versions portray conditions or restrictions on speaking differently. It would
be interesting to read all the stories.
Some interesting things that I found are:
-
Katha-sarita-sagara (Vikram
- Vetaal stories) stories were compiled for the entertainment of queen Suryamati,
wife of king Anantadeva of Kashmir.
-
According to some Hindu
mythology, Vetaal is regarded as brother of goddess Shantadurga of Konkan. Some
temples of Shantadurga also have temple of Vetaal alongside.
-
Vetaal is also considered
head of all the spirits and ghosts. His more intense variation is agya-vetaal
(or agni vetaal, who carries flames in head)
-
Richard Burton and Isabel
Burton, who exposed Vikram-Vetaal stories to Europeans, called vetaal as
vampire in their translation. Interesting!!
-
One literature teacher
tried to cite Vetaal as one of the inspirations of vampire of Dracula stories
alongside East European folklores.
-
Another guy, in his blog, has
compared them to MBA case studies as case studies also have questions at the
end. Not so interesting!!
Ok. Diving deeper in thoughts, why was I searching for
Vikram - Vetaal stories’ origin? I guess, I was interested in story telling
aspect of those stories. I started wondering why and how come Vetaal told those
stories. Probably, this question is irrelevant. In essence Vikram - Vetaal
stories are just stories that are deep rooted in traditions and passed on from
generation to generation since very ancient times.
Last story in the original set that stumps Vikram is
an interesting one. Father and a son, in the after-math of a devastating war, find
the queen and the princess alive in the chaos. They decide to take them home.
In due time, the son marries the queen and the father marries the princess.
Eventually, the son and the queen have a son, and the father and the princess
have a daughter. The vetala asks what the relation between the two newborn
children is.
I find that very interesting!! So, even very old
Indian tradition could imagine the relationship tangle arising out of fatal
attractions that defy social norms. I remember someone (proud of Indian
tradition) citing such story with Americans as immoral excess of Western culture.
What a misunderstanding!!!
(P.S. This quest of Vetaal informed me about various personalities
starting from Vikram, Vetaal, Somadeva, Bhavabhuti, Richard Burton, Isabel
Burton and gave me glimpses of their lives)
