King Vikram was given the duty of bringing Betal to a tantric.
Betal traditionally means ‘evil spirit’.
Each time Vikram tried to capture Betal, it told him a story that ended with a riddle.
If Vikram could not answer the question correctly, Betal agreed to remain in captivity.
But, if the king knew the answer and still kept quiet, his head would burst into a thousand
pieces.
And if King Vikram spoke, Betal would escape and return to his tree.
Vikram Betal - The Four Boys Who Made a Lion
Once again, King Vikram went back into the
dense forest to fetch Betal, who had flown away after Vikram had answered his question.
Betal, as always, began another interesting story to keep Vikram entertained during the
journey.
The story went like this: Once upon a time, there lived a Brahmin, who had four sons.
The Brahmin had himself taught the Vedas and the holy scriptures to all of them.
One day, the brothers decided to venture out into the world on their own, learn a special
skill and then come back again to meet each other.
Hence, they went to learn something extraordinary and after some time, came back to meet each
other at the appointed time.
Each bragged about the special skill that he had learned.
The first one said, “I can create the flesh of a creature from a single bone of the creature.”
The second one said, ” I can make the hair and skin of a creature.”
The third one said, “I can create the limbs of a creature.”
The fourth one said, ” And I can infuse life into that creature.”
They went to the forest to find a piece of bone and put their skills to test.
They happened to find a lion’s bone lying somewhere in the forest.
The first one created the flesh over the bone, using his special skill.
The second one added skin and hair to the lion using his powers and the third one created
the lion’s limbs.
The fourth young man was waiting to flaunt his skills and when his turn came, he chanted
some mantras and infused life into the lion’s body.
As soon as the lion came to life, it pounced on them and killed them all.
Betal asked King Vikram, “Who among the four brothers was responsible for the death
of all of them?”
Vikram replied, “The fourth one, as he gave life to the otherwise dead structure of bones
flesh and limbs and hair.”
Betal appreciated the king for his intelligence and went back to the tree.