Once again, King Vikramaditya went back to the tree and took Betaal upon his shoulders, and as usual, to pass time Betaal started narrating a story.
The state of Narsinghpura was ruled by a king named Hargovindas. In his palace, a snake couple Naagesh-Naageshwari resided in the room of his maidservant Ganga.
It was the birthday of King Hargovindas’ only son, Prince Shaktinath. The King, his daughter-in-law Arundhati, and her three daughters, all of them were busy celebrating.
Everyone was giving gifts to the Prince. Even Ganga came to wish Prince Shaktinath, along with Naagesh and Naageshwari. Ganga told Shaktinath that even Naagesh and Naageshwari had come to wish him.
The snake couple gave Shaktinath a flower. King Hargovindas prayed Naagdevta to bless his daughter-in-law Arundhati to have a baby boy.
One day Prince Shaktinath went hunting. Arundhati asked him to take Raghu with him, but he refused. Just as Prince Shaktinath was tracking a deer in the jungle, Naagesh and Naagesh-Naageshwari were making love in human form. Both of them were engrossed with their lovemaking.
At that moment, Shaktinath shot an arrow at the deer, but the deer ran away and the arrow pierced the stomach of Naagesh killing him.
Shaktinath came running up, but they had disappeared and the arrow with blood on it was lying there on the ground. Meanwhile Naageshwari had registered Shaktinath’s image in her mind.
Naageshwari took an oath over Naagesh’spyre, that she would take revenge for her husband’s death, and would fill her maang with the murderer’s blood.
Meanwhile, Shaktinath reached home and showed his father the arrow with blood.Just then Naageshwari appeared in the court in the form of a woman. She told the king that the Prince had killed Naagesh and that she wanted to take revenge.
At this, King Hargovindas asked her to come along with him. He took her aside and then explained her that Prince Shaktinath had shot the arrow at the deer, but by mistake Naagesh was shot instead. Naageshwari was not ready to listen, as according to her, whatever the circumstances, she had lost her husband.
King Hargovindas then told her that Prince Shaktinath had three daughters and his wife Arundhati was expecting for the fourth time, and she was to give birth in few days.
He told her that this time they were expecting a boy child, and so requested her to at least let the boy be born, and once Shaktinath saw his face, he would surrender himself to her. Naageshwari agreed to his request.
Arundhati called her brother for RakshaBandhan. After tying raakhi, she told her brother that she was tying raakhi for the last time.
When her brother asked her the reason for that, she told him the story of the Nagin and said that if her husband died, she too would not remain alive. Just then, Prince Shaktinath came. Arundhati begged him to go away to her paternal house so that the Nagin could not reach him, and once the child was born, she too would reach there.
But Shaktinath refused to go, saying that he cannot run away like a coward. At this, Arundhati’s brother said that he would kill the Nagin, but Shaktinath strongly opposed him. Meanwhile King Hargovindas once again asked Naageshwari for mercy for his son, but she countered with the question: What would he have done if her husband had killed his son?Arundhati dreamt of the Nagin killing her husband. She screamed and woke up. She took out the knife and went to Ganga’s room to kill the Nagin but Raghu stopped her from doing so. Later, Arundhati gave birth to a baby boy. King Hargovindas was very happy at the birth of grandson but at the same time very sad, as Shaktinath was to die.
As soon as Nagin came to know that Arundhati had given birth to a son, she came to the palace to find Prince Shaktinath. As she was passing through the rooms, she saw the three daughters of Arundhati feeding milk to her children. She realized how innocent the daughters were, and that they were soon to be fatherless. She hurried away from there, and continued her search.
She went to the room where the king, the prince and his wife were performing a yagya. As soon as Arundhati saw her, she screamed and fainted. Prince Shaktinath extended his hand for the Nagin to bite.
Betaal stopped and asked King Vikramaditya whether the Nagin would bite Prince Shaktinath or not. Once more he forced him to reply or else he would behead him.
Vikram replied that the Nagin would not bite Prince Shaktinath, because motherly affection would win over revenge. Though the King took off his crown in front of her, it did not affect her decision, but the moment she saw Arundhati’s daughters feeding her children, it shook her and her motherly affection rose up.
She realized that by killing the prince, she was depriving those girls of their father, and she could not do that.As for the promise that she had given her dead husband, the Nagin jumped into the fire of the yagya, and killed herself so that she did not have to remain alive to fulfill her promise. King Vikramaditya then remarked that a human could kill a human, but even a Nagin thinks twice before killing a human.Betaal again flew away and King Vikramaditya started running after him.
