The Three Fastidious Brothers
द्वादश बेताल: तीन अति-संवेदनशील भाई
The Twelfth Retrieval & The Three Prodigies
बारहवीं चढ़ाई और तीन सुकुमार भाई
For the twelfth time, Emperor Vikramaditya traversed the thorny graveyard path, untied Betal from the ancient Shinshapa tree, and shouldered the spectral corpse in steadfast silence.
O Emperor! Your relentless endurance is awe-inspiring! Listen now to the extraordinary tale of three prodigiously delicate brothers and the ultimate riddle of sensitivity!
In the prosperous land of Anga ruled King Gunashekhara. To his grand court came three cultured, high-born brothers renowned across kingdoms for their miraculous, supernatural sensitivity of the senses.
The three brothers presented their rare gifts: the eldest was an epicure of absolute taste (Bhojan-sukumara), the second a master of subtle scent (Gandha-sukumara), and the youngest an embodiment of extreme physical touch (Shayya-sukumara).
Your Majesty! Our bodies and senses perceive the subtlest hidden flaws of nature that escape all ordinary mortal perception!
Intrigued by their astonishing claims, King Gunashekhara resolved to test each brother personally under the most rigorous imperial scrutiny.
If your extraordinary claims prove genuine, you shall receive thousands of gold coins and royal honors! We shall put your senses to the test!
The First Test: The Gourmet & The Funeral Pyre
प्रथम परीक्षा: भोजन-सुकुमार और चिता की गंध
For the eldest brother, the gourmet epicure, the King arranged an imperial banquet featuring the finest fragrant rice, cooked with saffron, cardamom, and clarified butter.
Yet the moment the eldest brother smelled the rising steam, his face turned pale with revulsion. He violently pushed the golden platter away and retched in disgust, refusing to eat!
Ugh! This food is utterly foul and inedible! In this fragrant rice, I smell the unmistakable stench of a burning human corpse from a funeral pyre!
Outraged at first by the insult to the royal feast, the King dispatched royal officers to trace the exact paddy field where this grain had been cultivated.
Go at once! Investigate the source of this royal harvest! Discover if there is any truth to this shocking claim!
The inquiry revealed the astonishing truth: the paddy had grown in a field bordering the village burning ghats, where funeral pyre smoke and ash had seeped into the soil! The gourmet's uncanny discernment was proven beyond doubt!
The Second Test: Scent & The Courtesan
द्वितीय परीक्षा: गंध-सुकुमार और बकरी की गंध
The following evening, to test the second brother (Gandha-sukumara), the King summoned the realm's most dazzling courtesan, bathed in rare perfumes and draped in exquisite jewels.
Yet the moment the radiant beauty approached, the scent connoisseur clamped a silk cloth over his nose, grimacing in severe agony as an intense headache seized him.
Your Majesty! Take this maiden away! Beneath all her exotic perfumes, her body emits the suffocating, raw stench of a goat!
Shocked by this strange declaration, King Gunashekhara summoned the courtesan's elderly foster-mother to uncover the secret of her early upbringing.
O King! Her mother died at childbirth. In her infancy, having no wet-nurse, she was raised exclusively on goat's milk!
The court was awestruck! Detecting the subtle trace of goat's milk absorbed in infancy beneath heavy perfumes was an undeniable testament to his miraculous olfactory sensitivity!
The Third Test: The Bed of Seven Mattresses
तृतीय परीक्षा: शय्या-सुकुमार और सात गद्दे
Now came the turn of the youngest brother, the touch-sensitive sleeper (Shayya-sukumara). The King prepared a luxurious bed stacked with seven layers of plush silk quilts and velvet mattresses.
The youth was escorted to rest upon the cloud-like bedding, surrounded by cooling breezes and gentle palace silence as the night deepened.
Yet in the dead of night, the youth cried out in unbearable agony! He tossed and turned in torment, groaning as though pierced by sharp iron thorns!
Ahhh! Something sharp is piercing deep into my flesh! My side is bruised and bleeding! Have mercy!
At dawn, when the King and royal physicians rushed in, they uncovered the youth's side and were stunned to behold a deep, inflamed, bleeding welt on his delicate skin!
The Strand of Hair & The Deepening Enigma
बाल का रहस्य और श्मशान की पहेली
By royal command, attendants carefully stripped away the seven thick silk mattresses one by one to uncover what had inflicted such a severe physical wound.
Beneath the very bottom of the seventh mattress lay nothing but a single, fine strand of stray hair! Transmitted through seven layers of dense bedding, that single strand had bruised his delicate body!
King Gunashekhara bowed before their miraculous sensitivities, rewarding all three brothers lavishly with royal honors and gold.
Concluding his wondrous narrative amidst the eerie cremation fog, Betal leaned into Vikramaditya's ear with the decisive enigma.
Now test your supreme intellect, O King! Among these three brothers, who was genuinely the most delicate and supreme in sensitivity?
The Riddle, The Verdict, & The Flight
बेताल का प्रश्न, विक्रम का अमर निर्णय और पलायन
Betal challenged the silent Emperor under penalty of royal destruction.
Was it the Gourmet? The Scent Connoisseur? Or the youth who slept upon seven mattresses? Speak the truth, O King, or your skull shatters into dust!
Emperor Vikramaditya declared: 'The third brother who slept upon the seven mattresses is undeniably the supreme and truest prodigy of sensitivity!'
The first two brothers relied on sensory perception, sharp intellect, and deductive reasoning—skills that could be cultivated or deduced. But the third brother bore incontrovertible physical bodily proof: an inflamed, bleeding wound inflicted through seven dense mattresses by a single strand of hair! Tangible bodily reaction cannot be feigned by intellect or trickery. Therefore, the purest and most genuine sensitivity belonged solely to the third brother!
The flawless verdict shattered the King's vow of silence! With a triumphant cackle, Betal dissolved into emerald mist and flew back into the heights of the Shinshapa tree.
Flawless logic, O King! Tangible physical truth surpasses all intellectual deduction! But your silence is broken—and I fly! Khehehehe!
Beneath the ink-black canopy of the moonless Amavasya night, Emperor Vikramaditya drew his gleaming blade, resolute and tireless, striding back to retrieve the ghost once more.
Betal! I shall answer every riddle you weave, and fulfill my pledge without fail!