Vikram and Betaal - The three special brahmins

 

Vikram and Betaal – Story 1

We saw how King Vikramaditya (Vikram) went to the cremation ground at the instruction of a sage to get a dead body and found a ghost. It agreed to come on the condition that the king should not talk till he reached his destination. The ghost then started telling him a story. Here goes. 

The three special brahmins

Once upon a time there lived a brahmin called Vishnuswamin. He had three sons. In the olden days, it was very common for sons who were part of the Vedic varnas to stay with their father and help him in his duties. The main duties of the people of Vedic varna was to chant the Vedas, perform yagnas (fire sacrifices) for the sake of the world and also to teach the scriptures to students who come to the Vedic school. Let us come back to our story.

Vishnuswamin was once doing a yagna. For the purpose of that particular yagna he needed a tortoise. (Funny, isn’t it?) Vishnuswamin sent his three sons to go to the seashore and get him a tortoise. The young men while learned and obedient, also had some peculiar qualities. The father called the young men and said “My dear sons. Go and get me a tortoise.”

The sons left as per the directions of their father. They went to the sea shore and did find the tortoise. Unfortunately, they did not want to touch it as they felt that their special qualities would be lost. They decided that whosoever’s quality was not special will be the one to carry the tortoise to the father. Now what were these qualities? And who is going to decide?

They went to the king of their province. The king patiently heard them and asked the same thing “What is the special quality that each of you have?”

The first son said “King, I can discern food taste to the minutest level. That is my speciality.” The king decided to test him. He ordered that the young man be given a plate of very tasty food. The young man looked at the food, smelt it and said “This food smells of burnt corpses like it is from a cremation ground.” The king was shocked and angry. He asked his cook. After a lot of enquiry it was found that the rice did indeed come from a field near the cremation ground. He was impressed.

Then he called the second boy and asked him what his speciality was. The boy said that he can find out about women by just being near them. The king decided to test him. He sent a beautiful young girl to the boy to entertain him. She was the best dancer and singer and was beautiful. But the second son sent her back saying that she smelled of goat. The king was furious but did not lose his patience. He enquired and found that the girl grew up in a goat farm and was fed goat’s milk as a child. The king was impressed again.

The third son said that he could assess a mattress for its softness and comfort. The king was curious now. He gave the boy seven of his best mattresses piled on each other to sleep. The boy got up after sometime claiming that it was uncomfortable. On enquiry it was found that there was a thin strand of hair underneath the seventh mattress. The king was now astounded.

The king was unable to decide which of the three was more special but decided to keep all the three in the palace as his workers. He asked his soldiers to take the tortoise to Vishnuswamin for the yagna.

Betaal now stopped and asked King Vikram “If you were the king what would you have done? Who amongst the three was most special? If you know the answer and don’t speak your head will burst. If you answer, you break your promise and I will fly back to my tree.”

Vikram realised that he had been trapped. After some thought he said “The third son is the most special. The first one could have found about the rice from some one in the kitchen and the second one could have found about the girl from someone in the palace. In the case of the third son, that small hair gave him rashes even with so many mattresses in between. So if I were the king, I would have said that the third son is the most special.”

As soon as Vikram spoke, the Betaal gave a demonic laugh and flew back to his tree.