Adapted from the Vetālapañcaviṃśati, Sanskrit tales about Vikramāditya Sākārī, King of Ujjain.

Adaptation of Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa; for children.

The stories of Vikram and Betal, originally written in Sanskrit, have been an integral part of the Indian fairy tales for many centuries. Legend has it that King Vikramaditya (Vikram), the Emperor of Ujjain promises a monk to bring Betal, the vampire as a favour promised to him. The condition is that the King should bring the vampire with complete silence otherwise the vampire will fly back with corpse to the tree. As soon as Vikram attempts to fetch the corpse, the vampire starts to narrate a story. And at the end of every story, it compels King Vikram to answer his question, thus breaking his silence. The collection of Vikram and Betal stories bring before the young readers some of the most amazing tales ending with a moral. Hope the children will enjoy reading them.

‘If you know the answer and do not respond, your head will shatter into pieces!’ In a land of glorious kings, bloodthirsty demons and talking spirits, was born the lore of Vikram and the Vetal. After a series of mysterious events, King Vikramaditya carries the vetal, a witty ghost, on a long journey through death's playground. The vetal narrates the most fascinating tales and asks the most puzzling riddles, leaving Vikram completely stumped. Deepa Agarwal's beautiful translation brings age-old wisdom alive through the vetal's wondrous stories that are bound to confound and captivate readers even today.

The "Vikram Betal" stories are adventurous and full of the fascinating tales, the puzzles of Betal and answers by Vikrama do interestingly help to learn about good moral values!These stories were written nearly 2,500 years ago by Mahakavi Somdev Bhatt. These are spellbinding stories told to the wise King Vikramaditya by the wily ghost Betal. Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati were all alone in a temple. At that time, Parvati after salutations to Lord Shiva requested My Dear Lord! Please tell me some puzzle stories that were never heard by anyone in this world.Lord Shiva said, "Listen. I will tell you some strange stories according to your wish. These plots are not known to anyone in this world." Then, he continued telling her many stories. Exactly at the time, Lord Shiva was narrating the strange stories to Goddess Parvati but Betal, who came for offerings, listened to all the narrations of Lord Shiva. Goddess Parvati came to know of these stories popular on earth. She immediately rushed to Lord Shiva and angrily told him, "My Lord! You promised me to tell tales unknown to others and narrated me all the tales that are widely popular on the earth."Lord Shiva in a wink knew about Betal, a Shaivaite Deity, Shri Dev Vetoba, and also known as Vetal, the king of ghosts had told these stories to his devotees and soon spreading all over as these stories are full of adventure, mystery, and intrigue and will cling to the heart and mind help interestingly to learn about good moral Values!! Lord Shiva ordered, "Hi, Betal! I am admonishing you to turn into a celestial spirit to be retold with your wise puzzles to King Vikramaditya, who would answer them with wisdom. Now, you must bring each story to life, hanging upside down as a ghost!"Betal on hearing the wish of Lord Shiva prayed, "Oh God of Gods! Parama Shiva! Please tell me how I can be relived." Lord Shiva told him, "King Vikrama takes birth on earth, and would come to you following a request of an Aghori. You narrate him all the stories you knew. You will go free, as soon as you finish them. Thou shall be worshipped as Lord Betal for protection from ghosts in Konkan area."At once, Betal turned as a ghost and started living on a dense tree in a forest. He gave life to each of the adventurous 25 stories with authenticity! The stories thus narrate by Betal, the Betal forms an interesting series of fairy tales.Now each story brought to life with authenticity and fully illustrated with licensed 32 color images.The main purpose of these stories is to illustrate the generous deeds of a model king and emphasize moral lessons. In this light they are didactic, but in their ingenious plots, dramatic situations, portrayal of real life and correct appraisal of human character, they are superb. As a reader can easily notice, human nature has not changed a whit even after thousand years.These will helps young readers become enthusiastic learner, confident reader, writer, and speaker. If your child enjoys stories then this is one of the ideal picks for them.These spellbinding stories themselves ranged from silly riddles to philosophical and moral dilemmas to questions of royal judgment and interestingly will help to learn about good moral values!!These are highly suitable for making movies, television serials and Web Series, which the viewers would love to chew, digest and remember for ages with wonder!

India is a land of enchanting mysterious tales. This land had been ruled by many kings whose lives still remained to be mysterious, but their stories have earned immortality. The stories of Vikramaditya, a benevolent Indian ruler, are such mysterious ones. Tales of Vikram and Vetal have fascinated readers all over the world. These stories take the readers into the realm of fairies and ghosts, queens and kings, princes and princesses, braves and cowards, rich and poor, wise and fools, and also the common simpletons. The tales reflect judgments on morality, sacrifice, loyalty and love. This book is a collection of selected stories from the varied Vikram-Vetal encounters. The stories are written in simple and easy to understand language and carry colorful illustrations. We hope that readers would benefit from the judgment skills of Vikramaditya as depicted in these stories.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1871.