Once upon a time there was born a beautiful daughter, Mandaravati, to a very
famours priest. When the daughter grew of age, the father was worried about
her marriage.Once, three eligible bachelors came to the father and each asked
him for the hand of the daughter. Each of them threatened to kill himself lest
the daughter be married off to any other of the three. The father decided not to
marry her off to anyone.
One day, she caught a very high pitched fever and died suddenly. All three of
them, grief-struck, cremated the body of Mandaravati. One of them decided to
stay there and slept on the ashes of Mandaravati. The other took her bones and
went to the Ganges. The third became an ascetic and wandered off.
On one of his wanderings, the third one reached a brahmin's house. The
brahmin, by power of a spell, was able to bring the dead alive from the ashes.
This was in a book which the brahmin gaurded safely. But the third suitor, in
the stealth of night, stole this book and went back to the cremation ground of
Mandaravati. The second one had returned from the Ganges with the holy
water, and the first one was still there sleeping on the ashes.
Then he with the help of the other two, recited the spell from the book and lo
Behold!! Mandaravati was reborn! Then the three of them started fighting
about whose wife she should be. Each of them claiming the revival being due
to his effort
Betaal stops and asks King Vikram asks this question: Who among the three
suitors should be the husband of Mandaravati? Vikram replies with a lot of
thought, "The person who gave her the life by reciting the spell is her
creator, it could be her father. The person who took her bones to Ganges
shall be her son. But the person who committed himself to the ground and
slept on her ashes out of love, can be her husband."
As soon as Vikram had finished his answer, Betaal disappeared
back to the tree.