Vikram and Vaitaal Stories
- Introduction
Vaitaal
Stories
are a part of our
religious literature - that is Bhavishya Puraan. They are given in its
third part - "Prati Sarg". Whatever stories are given in
Bhavishya Puraan, published by Gita Press, Gorakhpur, UP; may be read here,
though this book gives only nine stories and apart from that they are
different in names and contexts also. That is why it
seems that many stories have been added to these stories also, like Akbar
and Beerbal stories, and thus it is difficult to identify the original
stories. It as been tried to include only original stories here, but if
there is any story which is not original, please write about it on the
following address.
"These
stories were written by Mahaakavi Som Dev Bhatt about 2,500 years ago The
first Mugal king Muhammad Shaah asked a poet Saurath, in Savaaee
Jayasinh's court, to translate them in Brij language. Later Bangaal's
Governor General Marikwis Welsley, with the cooperation of Dr Gilchrist,
asked poet Lalloo Laal to translate them into Khadee Bolee (a language
spoken in Meerut, Bulandshahar, Aligarh, Aagaraa etc regions of western
UP). Captain Mart asked Bangaal's Taarineecharan Mishraa to write them in
much easier language and started teaching them in Bangaal's primary schools."
(From the back
of the cover of "Vetaal Kathaayen:
Vikram aur Vetaal" / published by Sadhana Pocket Books)
These
stories continued to become popular because of being educational and full
of wisdom. Today they can be read in many languages of the world. These stories are equally
liked by children, young, adult and the old. Altogether
there are 25 stories, that is why it is called "Vaitaal Pachcheesee" also.
The stories given here, in Vaitaal-1,
have been adapted from the book entitled, "Vetaal Kathaayen:
Vikram Aur Vetaal" (Sadhna Pocket Books, 2001). The stories taken
from Richard Burton's book are given in the section
Vaitaal-2. Some
stories have been taken from other sources, they are
given in section Vaitaal-3.
Since
they are Bhavishya Puraan's part, then Gita Press published Bhavishya
Puraan gives only nine stories which can be read in
Bhavishya Puraan,
and they should be considered as genuine Vaitaal stories.
They
are a part of "Kathaa Sarit Saagar" - a famous 11th century
collection of fairy and folk tales by Som Dev. It contains 18 books of 124
chapters, and more than 21,000 verses in addition to prose sections. The
principal tale is the narrative of the adventures of Naravaahan Datt, son
of the legendary King Udayan. A large number of tales are built into this
central story to make it a largest collection of Indian tales.
It
claims to be based on Gunaadhyaaya's "Brihat Kathaa" written in
Paishaachee dialect from the south of India. There are two versions of
Brihat Kathaa, available in Kaashmeer, in addition to "Brihat
Kathaa Shlok Sangraha" of Buddhaswaamee of Nepaal, but Som Dev's
material is different from the Paishaachee language version.
But it is for sure,
that there are many more other stories also popular under the name Vaitaal
stories. Besides, there exist different versions also of the same story. It
is difficult to decide that which version of which story is a genuine one.
Historically Vikram's whereabouts and timings have not been established
yet. In this regard, there is another explanation, I found in a Nepaal's
astrological magazine. It is given here just
for information.
Read
Sinhaasan Battesse stories which are
also related to Vikramaaditya.
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