The Vetala stories have earned a considerably good recognition in India, which is why people have translated theminto many Indian languages. They’ve been translated into Marathi, Hindi, and English from Sanskrit. A variation of the story exists, where a minor heavenly body replaces the character of Vetala. This celestial body reveals the plot in exchange for his life. He tells Vikrama of the two tradesmen who were ordered to kill Vikrama and also advises him to trick the tradesmen to save his life. Vikrama follows the advice and eventually kills the tradesmen. Impressed by this, the Goddess rewards him two of her loyal servants. The original story goes like this: The great king Vikramaditya has given a promise to a Vamachar(a tantric sorcerer).
The king has to acquire a Vetala(Baital), a heavenly spirit which is equivalent to a vampire in Western Literature. The king comes across many hurdles on his way to the tantric. Whenever he is about to get hold of Vetala and proceed towards their destination, it starts narrating him a story that ends with a riddle.Vikrama’s answers to the question determine whether the spirit stays or flies away. If he answers incorrectly, the vampire remains in control, obediently. If the king fails to reply even when he knows the answer, his head would burst into a thousand pieces.
The last condition was that if he answers the question correctly, Vetala would just escape and go back to his tree. Since the king is extremely knowledgeable and intelligent, he knows the correct answer to every riddle, which leads to a cycle of catching and escaping for twenty-four times. When Vetala narrates the twenty-fifth story, the king is unable to guess the correct answer. Being satisfied, Vetala finally allows Vikrama to take it to the Tantric. On the way to the Tantric, Vetala starts telling Vikrama, the story of his life. Vetala’s parents were unable to have children.
A tantric blessed them with a set of two sons under the condition that they must finish their education under his care. Vetala was taught about every skill in the world, but was not treated with respect at all. On the contrary, the Tantric taught his twin brother only the necessary, but the Tantric treated him well. Vetala eventually discovered Tantric’s plan. He planned on returning the twin brother to Vetala’s parents and sacrificing Vetala as he knew everything and would, therefore, be a competition. By sacrificing Vetala, the Tantric would become immortal and acquire greater powers.
Vetala also revealed that the Tantric was planning to sacrifice King Vikrama too. Vetala gave him an idea to trick the tantric and behead him. Vikrama followed his advice and successfully killed the evil tantric. Lord Indra and Devi Kali showered their blessings on him. On receiving a boon from the Tantric, Vikrama wishes purification of the Tantric’s mind and body and restoration of his life as a noble person. He also wishes for Vetala’s assistance whenever he is in trouble.
Vikram-Aur-Betaal was a 1985 Hindi, mythological and fantasy series that was created by Sagar Arts Limited and produced by Ramanand Sagar. It starred Arun Govil and Sajjan in the titular role of King Vikramaditya and Betaal respectively. The series was based on the book Baital Pachisi, written some 2500 years ago by Mahakavi Somdev Bhatt meaning 25 tales of Betaal. The plot of the show was based on a wise and famous King, King Vikramaditya and a ghost by the name Betaal. Every night the ghost would tell King Vikramaditya a story and by the end of the story would who ask him a tricky question based on the same story.
All the stories were aimed at teaching moral lessons to humans. Each episode of the show ran for nearly 52 minutes. In the first episode, it was shown how the King and the ghost met each other. The ghost also tells the king a story about a man named Suryamal. The man fell in love with a woman and also married her with the permission from her parents. However, while returning home with his friend, he met with a ghastly accident as few dacoit attacked them and beheaded both of them.
Grief-stricken, his wife, who was a huge worshipper of Goddess Durga, decided to sacrifice her life. Impressed by the wife's loyalty and devotion, Goddess Durga decided to bring alive both her husband and his friend. However, out of joy and excitement, the wife, by mistake, placed the head of her husband on his friend's body and vice versa. Then Betaal asked the king the question that who should the wife now choose as her husband. To this, the King replied that since mind controls and the functions of the entire body the man with her husband's head and his friend's body should be chosen. He would tell this stories to him by resting on his back.
After the king would give him the right answers, he would fly off, laughing. The show was telecasted on the Doordarshan National Channel. Since there were 25 stories that Betaal narrated to the King, the series was spanned over a total of 26 episodes. The show aimed at imparting moral values and lessons to the kids in an entertaining way. The show was a huge success and was very popular in its days. Many shows based on this plot were created, but none could match the popularity of this show.