Vikram was a kind and virtuous king who ruled over India for 5 years as "Vikram" and 50 years as "Vikramaditya" around 50 BCE and made it a prosperous kingdom thanks to his virtuous and kind behaviour. He was controlling the kingdom from the capital "Utkal" until he met betaal and became one of the greatest kings of all time. He was given the name "Vikramaditya" in later life, because of his sun-like brightness and virtuous-ness. From childhood he had an immense love for learning as well as adventuring. As Vikramaditya, he ruled over the kingdom for 50 years and is known as the great king. Many powerful kings later took his name and put it in their name as a kind of prize and pride for being in the epitome of judgement.
In his 55 years of ruling span with the work of making the kingdom prosperous for future generations, Vikramaditya had given many judgement sitting on his Royal chair consisting of 9 Anmol Ratna ("One of a kind ornaments") and it was believed that the decision that will came from one's mouth after sitting on that chair will always be perfect. The perfect example of it is believed from the story of a poor boy sitting on a rock at a specific mountain and giving judgement. When the king investigated he found out that the boy was able to give judgement only when he sat on that rock and after some digging he found that Magical chair hidden there. The chair was there for the next 4 to 5 centuries handing down from one king to another. But no-one can deny that the Royal chair was magical. At a later time that chair was hidden somewhere in India in the fear of it is being stolen by foreign powers. Some say that the chair was hidden deep inside one of India's rivers, while some say it was hidden in the core middle of an unknown and not so famous mountain. Vikram nearly spent 5 years with Betaal hearing more than 1800+ incidents from Betaal, which developed his understanding over the world and his decisions, judgements etc.
Whether or not it is true nobody knows, but in India in some states we still use Vikram Samvat calendar.
[ Google finding : Vikram Samvat (IAST: Vikrama Samvat; abbreviated VS) or Bikram Sambat and also known as the Vikrami calendar, is the historical Hindu calendar used in the Indian subcontinent. It is the official calendar of Nepal. In India, it is used in several states. ]
So let's hear the story :::
The story starts with a kind king dying in his middle age due to some illness and his one and only son ,prince "Vikram", becoming the King. At that time Vikram's age was only 13. Like being born as a unique one in between millions of newborns, Vikram started taking the workload of a kingdom into his hand. He mastered the sastra-vidya (Weapon mastery) as well as the shastra-vidya (Book-knowledge) from a very young age as the pressure of managing a kingdom was onto him. Within a span of 4 years only he mastered more than enough knowledge to know how to handle kingdom and all about politics,human nature etc. Still his age was only 18. But thanks to his genes from his father and mother, he worked very hard to become perfect human being.
Vikram is a very kind, brave, courageous and strong willed person whom most of the kingdom's people love. Like giving gifts to a famous celebrity many people across India used to come to the "Rajdarbaar" (King's Court) to give him gifts daily. The King also used to take all gifts with the same courtesy and use them for his own people. There was this one Tantrik ("Person who knows some black magic") visiting the King daily with a small hand sized art of the King's statue made of wood. He used to come to Rajdarbaar everyday and give this gift to the King.
Once while the royal storekeeper carried all the gifts to the room, he tripped over the carpet and from the gifts he held the small statue dropped on the floor and it got broken. There was this small sized blue colored glowing stone popped up from inside the statue. He feared for the punishment, still thinking about Vikram's kindness he told the King about this. The King became intrigued and inspected the glowing stone that was found. When the King asked the merchant to check for the stone, they found out that this is a very heavy stone weighing more than 1kg and whose value must be 100 times more than that of gold.
The King ordered to destroy 5,6 more of his statue and found out that all of them have the same sized stone in them. The King became very astonished and decided to ask for the tantrik about this. The next day when the tantrik came with a similar wooden statue of the King, Vikram asked the tantrik "Baba !!! why are you giving me those priceless stones daily inside the statue ???" The tantrik said " Rajan !!! If you want to know the truth regarding this come alone to the center of the cremation ground that is situated in the north part of the city at midnight. I'll tell you the truth. "
Vikram was very brave. So he didn't fear anything and went out with a sword and a horse that midnight. When he reached the center of the cremation ground he found out that tantrik was sitting under a banyan tree and above someone's Kabar ("Dead's burial place"). When the King asked the tantrik regarding the stone, the tantrik replied " Rajan !!! I'm doing a tantra tapasya. If I complete this tapasya, I can get 1 million such blue glowing stones like I previously gifted you as well as the knowledge of how to make it. But for my Tapasya's completion I need a specific corpse hanging from a thousand years old tree on the southernmost part of this cremation ground. It is only 30 gaj (90 steps) away from this place ( nearly 270 square feet ), but the thing is no one except a virtuous King like you can bring that dead body. " The tantrik then again said " Rajan !!! I can give you all of the things I will get from this Tapasya as I'm only looking for the occult powers I'll get from this. " Vikram agreed for the condition.
Raja Vikram prepared to go to that ancient tree for that corpse. It was a pure dark night and it was slightly raining. The sound of rumble is so loud that someone will think the sky becomes half. In the lightning different faces can be seen from different trees during the route. Raja Vikram was not fearful, he reached near the ancient tree and saw that a corpse really was hanging from the tree. He climbed the tree and put that corpse on his shoulder, then came down. While returning to that tantrik, en route when he walked 9 steps ( 27 square feet ), he was able to hear someone's loud laughter... "Hihihi Hihihi". Vikram asked loudly " Who is laughing ". The betaal inside that corpse said " Rajan !!! I'm a Betaal living inside this corpse from more than 800 years. I've seen many kings, people, changing of the throne and everything. I've just heard that there is a very virtuous and fearless king named Vikram ruling this kingdom now." Betaal continued " Now, I've even seen your charisma and your karma and I can understand why people like you. But even a knowledgeable king like you got trapped by that tantrik's mayajaal. That tantrik was a crooked one and he wanted to kill you to rule over the kingdom. The reason why he sent you to me so that I can kill you which will ultimately benefit him. Even if I failed and you succeeded in bringing me near him he had got enough tantra shakti to control me and use me against you. So it'll be better if you go back to your daily routine and don't be deceived by that trickster tantrik."
Vikram got very much confused about whom to trust and whom not to. Seeing Vikram confused about whom to trust Betaal sighed and continued "I've got enough power to kill you right now, But as you are a very virtuous person, I'll go on a condition to that tantrik with you. I'll tell you a story en route that I've seen in real life. And I've got a query I need an answer out of every story. I'll ask you the question. Upon knowing the answer you are bound to answer it. If you don't know the answer you can stay silent. But if you talk during our journey, I'll go back to my previous position in that tree. "
Raja Vikram knows that Betaal is very powerful. So he promised on the condition Betaal set. When he Took another 9 steps (27 square feet) Betaal spoke " Rajan !!! Hear this incident. "