Anangarati and the Four Suitors
Four masters, four wonderful arts, one bride. Which art wins a wife?
A princess will marry only the finest master of one great art, and four suitors come: a weaver of priceless cloth, a man who knows the speech of every creature, an unbeatable swordsman, and a man who can raise the dead. No demon steals her; the question is simply which of the four she should marry. You judge first, then the king does.
The Burning Ground
The corpse went back to its tree, and the king climbed up after it once more. He bound it, shouldered it, and set off across the ash. The Vetala, riding easy behind his ear, began again.
The Four Arts
There was a king named Viradeva whose daughter, Anangarati, was so lovely that no prince of the earth seemed a fitting match. So her father let her set her own terms, and her terms were these: she would marry the young man who was the finest in all the world at one great art.
Word went out, and four suitors came, each a master of one thing.
The first was a weaver. His loom turned out five flawless garments in a single day, cloth so fine that kings would empty their treasuries for a single length of it.
The second understood the speech of every creature that walks or swims or flies. No bird's warning and no beast's grief was hidden from him.
The third was a swordsman named Khadgadhara. No fighter alive could stand before his blade.
The fourth was named Jivadatta, and his power was rare and solemn: he could call the dead back to life.
Four young men, four wonderful arts, and one bride. Her father could not choose, and neither could she.
The Betaal's Riddle
"So, king," said the Vetala. "Each of the four is the best in the world at what he does, and each wants Anangarati. She can marry only one. To which of them should she be given: the weaver, the one who knows the speech of animals, the swordsman, or the man who raises the dead?
Answer, if you know. You know the rules."
You Be the Judge
Pause before the verdict. This one is not settled by a rescue, and no demon has carried her off. Four men simply stand before her, each a master of his art.