Baital Pachisi: The Twenty-Five Tales of the Vetal Explained

A yogi asks King Bikram (Vikramaditya) to bring him a corpse that hangs from a tree in a cremation ground. Inside the corpse lives a spirit, the Baital. As the king carries it, the Baital tells a story and ends it with a question. If the king knows the answer and stays silent, his head will burst into pieces; if he answers, the corpse flies back to its tree and he must start again.

Twenty-four times the king answers, and twenty-four times he walks back. The twenty-fifth riddle has no answer, and his silence at last brings the corpse to the yogi, whose real plan, revealed by the Baital, gives the cycle its climax.

The Transposed Heads (Tale 6): a woman restores her husband and brother to life but puts each head on the other's body. Which one is her husband? The king answers that the head decides, since the head rules the body. Thomas Mann retold this story as The Transposed Heads.

The Three Delicate Queens (Tale 10): one queen is bruised by a falling lotus petal, another blistered by moonlight, the third pained by the sound of a pestle far away. Which is the most delicate?

The Four Who Made a Lion (Tale 21): four learned brothers use their skill to bring a lion to life, and it eats them. Which was the most foolish?

The Son of Three Fathers (Tale 18) and The Boy Who Laughed Before Dying (Tale 19) show the cycle's taste for paradox and its surprising moral judgements.

Each tale is short, ends in a puzzle and invites argument, which makes the book ideal for reading aloud and for learners of Urdu: try to answer the riddle before you read the king's reply. Learn more about the translator in our guide to Mazhar Ali Khan Vila.