Vikram and Beatal [part 1]

This is my first attempt at a series of posts. They were inspired by Julian Baggini's excellent book "The Pig that wants to be eaten, and 99 other thought experiments". It shall follow the protagonist of classic Indian folklore, Vikram and his pursuit of Beatal the undead corpse (read Zombie) , except Beatal's stories are now some thought experiments with my own take on it. I've also taken liberties with he story of Vikram and Beatal, basically cutting out a lot of mythology BS, which didn't seem appropriate this context and have further bastardised it by throwing in a few of my own twists and turns. So here goes..


Long time ago, in far away the kingdom of Ujjaini, was the most noblest of kings, Vikramaditya. Vikram the wise, as he was called by many, was well known for his generosity and wisdom. So it happened one day, that he received a mango from a merchant. It came with complements and a note to the king to give it to the poorest family in the country, and so the king did. The next day, he again received a mango with from the same merchant and the king grew curious, but the merchant simply said the king had inspired him to help the needy. The mangoes kept coming and one day, the king decided to eat one. He cut it open and out fell a ruby, so bright and so perfect and was the size of a lotus bud. The king was deeply moved by the kindness of the merchant and considered himself in debt to the merchant. It was then that the merchant transformed in to the demon Mara, and demanded the life of the king's son, the crown prince. The king ,not able to take back his promise begged the demon to ask not so high a price. The demon considered and said that he would spare the prince, if the king would undertake a quest and travel to the northern wastelands and hunt down Beatal, an undead corpse of lore.

The journey took the King forty days and forty nights across dark forests, deep mines and barren plains to the icy peaks of the northern wastelands. Ghouls roamed free and goblins hid in the shadows, but the Vikram never once faltered. He finally found Beatal, hanging upside down from a peepal tree. He had silver locks flowing free, deep set dark eyes that seemed to peer out from two caves, a hooked nose and blood red lips. Vikram walked up to him and untied him from the tree, then placing him on his shoulder Vikram started his return journey. Beatal was furious and immediately flew back to the tree resuming his inverted stance. Vikram approached and Beatal hissed "Stop where you are ! Why do you bother me in my eternal slumber ?"
The King taken aback for a while at the talking corpse, narrated his predicament.

Betal after hearing the story considered a moment, and then said "So Mara hunts me in the after life too; so be it, I shall come with you, but I have certain conditions" Beatal paused and continued " The journey back is long and I cannot set foot on earth, so you have to carry me on your back. I am of a loquacious disposition too so I shall narrate story to lighten the journey. You shall remain silent and listen to it; If I ask you a question you can tell me an answer, but otherwise, if I hear a word out of you, I shall return to my tree." Vikram agreed and hoisted up the corpse again and started the journey back to Ujjaini.

[To be continued...]