21TheLionAndTheFourLearnedMen
Somdev Bhatt 11th Century. Original in
Sanskrit.
English Translation: C. A. KINCAID, c. v. o.
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Background. "Vikram Aur
Betaal" is a series of enchanting tales derived from the
11th-century work 'Betaal Pachisi' by Kashmiri poet Somdev Bhatt. The
narrative follows the wise and adventurous King Vikramaditya of Ujjain.
When a mendicant consistently gifts him fruits containing rubies, the
king's curiosity is piqued. Meeting the mendicant under specific, eerie
conditions, Vikramaditya learns of a task only he can perform: to
retrieve a corpse, Betaal, from an ancient tree for the mendicant's
mystical rituals. As King Vikramaditya carries the corpse, Betaal's spirit tells him tales, concluding each with a riddle. If Vikramaditya knows the answer but stays silent, his head will shatter. But answering breaks his vow, and Betaal returns to the tree, making the king restart his mission. After 25 stories, Betaal reveals the mendicant's ulterior motive: to gain unparalleled powers by sacrificing the king. Forewarned by Betaal, Vikramaditya confronts the mendicant and, through his wit, triumphs over the deceitful ascetic. |
THE TWENTY-FIRST TALE THE LION AND THE FOUR LEARNED MEN
ONCE upon a time in the town of Jalasthal, there ruled a king called
Vartaman. In it lived a Brahman called Vishnuswami, who had four sons.
One was a gambler, the second -was an evil-liver, the third was a
criminal, and the fourth was an atheist. One day Vishnuswami lectured
his sons saying, "Fortune never dwells in the house of a gambler. For it
is written in the law books that one should cut off a gambler's nose and
ears and drive him from the city. Then others warned by his fate will
give up gambling. A gambler who has a wife and children is the same as
if he had them not, for he never knows when this punishment may not
descend on him. In the same way, those who fall in love with dancing
girls only make themselves unhappy. Wise men shun such women. Fools give
them their love and for their sakes ruin their health their careers,
their intellects, their morals and their religion. Such men pay no heed
to the words of their spiritual pastors and masters. They squander their
money and in the end take to thieving. Further, those who say that all
religion is false, atheists who are not ashamed to say that man all his
life should do nothing but enjoy himself, they corrupt not only
themselves, but others. If a cat eats her own kittens, is she likely to
let a mouse go scot free?" "Those," the old man continued,
134 Tales of King Vikrama
"who do not study in their
boyhood, but waste their youth in pleasure and their manhood in vanity,
bitterly repent night and day in their old age." When the old man had
finished, his four sons were overcome by remorse and they agreed that it
was better to die than to live without learning. "Let us, therefore,"
they said one to the other, "go into a far country and acquire
learning." They went off together to another town and after some years
of study, became learned men and set out towards their own home. On the
way they saw a dead lion. A man had separated its bones, its flesh, and
its skin and had put them in a leather well-bucket and was taking them
away. "Here," said the four brothers, "is a chance of displaying our
learning." One of them went to the man who carried the lion's remains
and bought them from him. Then he opened the well-bucket, and sprinkling
some water repeated some magical words. In- stantly the bones re-united.
The second repeated some other words, and the flesh stuck again to the
bones. The third in the same way made the skin grow once more upon the
flesh. The fourth restored the lion to life. Instantly the lion rushed
at the four brothers and ate them up. When the oilman's son had reached
this point, he said, "Who of those four was the biggest fool?" King
Vikrama answered, "He who restored the lion to life. For, it is said
that learning without wisdom is of no use. To be both learned and wise
is the best of all. But wisdom by itself is better than learning by
itself. Those who have no wisdom
The Lion and the Four learned Men 135
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