Stories of Tenali Ramakrishna

Stories of Tenali Ramakrishna

Tenali Ramakrishna was a famous and known poet of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 16th century CE. He was one of the popular eight poets or ashtadiggajas who were patrons of Krishnadeva Raya, the famous Vijayanagara emperor. He was full of wisdom and had good sense of humour. Even today his stories are popular among kids and adults.

Thousand Gold Coins and a Handful Grain

  Simhapuri was a prominent town in the Vijaya Nagar Empire. There lived a stunning beauty named Vidyullatha. She was a rich lady and well versed with prose, poetry and composition besides dance and music. Vidyullatha was famous as a proud woman in the region. A hoarding appeared on the compound wall of the woman’s house quoting as, “A reward of one thousand gold coins would be presented to those who can win over the Lady in the house. The competitors are required to prove their upper hand in humour, wit and scholarship.” This became a prestigious issue for the scholars in the region.

Many responded to the open invitation and barged into her house, individually, to test their fate through the fete. Surprisingly, everyone whoever walked into Vidyullatha’s house lost in the battle and came out with chins down. The list of losers was steadily growing and after sometime there were no takers to the invitation.

Days were passing like this. One morning, a vendor with a load of firewood on his head started shouting in front of her house, “Firewood…strong firewood…excess heat generating firewood…” he continued the sequence for sometime. Vidyullatha thinking that his noise was growing unbearable walked on to the threshold and enquired, “How much do you sell the load for?”

An instant reply came from the vendor, “I will not sell this for money. If you can give me a handful grain I will give you the entire load.” Assuring him to give more grains, Vidyullatha ordered him to dump the load in the backyard and return to collect the grains. The vendor unloaded the weight off his head then and there started to argue, “There is no bargain in this deal Madam! I will sell this to you only if you can give me a handful grain, did you get it” he stressed, “a handful grain.” The rich woman got disgusted with the vendor’s behaviour, “Hey you bloody vendor. Stop crying, I will give you what you wanted.” She said, “Throw them in the backyard and come here.”

The Vendor was adamant and made his firewood load’s price much clearer, “There is no change in the deal Madam. I said a handful grain…that means nothing more or less…it should be a handful grain. If you cannot pay the price, you should pay me one thousand gold coins and wipe the invitation hoarding on the compound wall.”

Vidyullatha yelled at him, “What nonsense are you trying to talk?” The vendor replied on par with her, “There is not any nonsense. I told you the price, you agreed for it and now if you cannot pay the price, stand by my wish. You should give the one thousand gold coins. That is it.”

The fire broke out between Vidyullatha and the firewood vendor. Both started arguing and shouting at each other. The local people started gathering in front of the house to witness and know what is happening and why the Lady was having a tiff with an ordinary vendor. Tired of shouting, both resorted to approach the provincial Court of Law for justice.

Vidyullatha presented her argument, “My Lord! This firewood vendor must have gone crazy. He is not ready to accede to my offer, though I wished to pay him more. He is sticking to his senseless argument to have a handful grain. He demands later for payment of a thousand gold coins and wiping away the invitation hoarding. I plead for justice.”

The Judge looked at the vendor and asked him what his problem was. Folding hands the vendor started in a humble manner, “Yes Your Majesty. She was right to some extent. However, I am not crazy. I informed her beforehand that the load of firewood would cost her a handful grain.”

He continued innocently, “When I was clear about a handful grain, she must have understood that I needed handful of grains. That was her mistake to mistake my quote for a handful grain. It means, one grain that fills the hand.”

What more? Vidyullatha was speechless. Obviously, the verdict was in favour of the vendor. Vidyullatha was unable to comprehend that a handful grain meant so much. Shocked with the development and the judgement, she was compelled to pay him one thousand gold coins and wipe off the invitation from the compound wall.

The people of the region knew about this and told themselves that the years old proud ness of Vidyullatha was shattered to pieces in a single stroke. By the way, the vendor was Tenali Ramalinga.

On hearing about the problem Vidyullatha created with her hoarding, Ramalinga took due permission from the King Rayalu to take her to task. In the guise of firewood vendor, Ramalinga fulfilled his responsibility in all success.

Paintings of Tenali Ramakrishna

  King Krishna Raya built a beautiful mansion. He arranged for the painting of the walls of the mansion with appropriate pictures. After the completion of the painting, the painter reported to the king.

One day, King, his ministers and others went to the mansion. He was watching the paintings. Suddenly Tenali Ramakrishna noticed a picture which was painted sideways had limbs of only one side. The king said “You must imagine it all"

Tenali Ramakrishna with apparent sincerity said, "Yes now, I understand it.

After a long time, Ramakrishna told the king "Sir from the day we visited your new mansion, I have started practicing doing painting. I have become an expert in it now and I will be pleased if you could witness some of my beautiful executions." The king then entrusted to him the entire responsibility of painting the walls of a mansion. He instructed Ramakrishna to remove the old paintings and in its place put some of his beautiful paintings.

Ramakrishna then rubbed away all the paintings. He painted a nail in one place, a finger in another place, a hand in a third, thus he filled the whole house with his paintings and completely spoiled its look. He then went to King and said: "Sir, I have finished all my paintings"

The King taking visits the building with several people. On seeing the pictures, he said, "Ramakrishna I don’t see any beautiful paintings. I see only odd limbs and fragments."

Ramakrishna said: "You must imagine all the other portions to exist on the other side. It seems you have forgotten that obvious thing?"

On hearing Ramakrishna's reply, the king felt that the same words which he said to Ramakrishna long back was turning back to his ears. He left the place without making any comment.

Lession to the Greedy

  Ramakrishna earned the affection and the esteem of the king and the people. He was a comic poet and looked, like an ignorant man; but he was pious and on the side of justice. He used his humour to set things right whenever injustice was done.

Krishnadevaraya's mother was a very orthodox woman. She had visited many holy places and had performed religious rites; she had given much in charity. Once she wanted to give fruit in charity and informed so to her son.

Krishnadevaraya who had great respect for his mother immediately got delicious mangoes from Ratnagiri. But on the auspicious day when she was to present those fruits to Brahmins, the king's mother died.

The religious rites connected with her death went on for several days. Meanwhile, the king called a few Brahmins and said, "My mother's last wish was to offer mangoes to Brahmins. But she died before the wish could be fulfilled. What should I do now that she might earn the merit for giving away the fruits?"

The greedy Brahmins replied: "Your Highness, only if you offer mangoes made of gold to Brahmins will your mother's soul rest in peace."

Ramakrishna came to know of this. The next day he went to the houses of those Brahmins, and asked them to come to his house next to perform his mother's ceremony.

The Brahmins came to Ramakrishna's house after receiving the gold mangoes from the king. Ramakrishna's servants closed all the doors of the house. They brought red-hot iron bars and stood before the Brahmins!

The Brahmins were taken aback. Then Ramakrishna told them His mother had knee pains and as remedy wanted Ramakrishna to burn her with read hot rods but she died before he could do it. So he now wanted to execute her wish. When the Brahmins said he was unjust towards them, Ramakrishna says there is nothing unjust because they had just taken golden mangoes from the king.

Then the Brahmins understood their folly and left the golden mangoes at Ramakrishna's house and left.

Later when Krishnadevaraya asked Ramakrishna why he had behaved like that with the Brahmins, Ramakrishna says the palace treasury should not be exploited by these selfish people it is not there to feed lazy follows. It is there to serve the people.

Red Peacock

  Krishna Raya was very fond of collecting rare objects. One day, a courtier had an idea. He asked painter to colour a peacock red. The painter did his job so well and the peacock really looked naturally red.

The courtier took the peacock to the king’s chamber and after presenting it to him, said: "Sir, This is the rarest red peacock available only in the dense forest. I have spent a large amount on it, so that you can add this rare bird in your precious collection." The king was surprised on seeing the peacock and observed the peacock. He was confused. But the peacock looked naturally red so the king said "Yes, It is the rarest peacock. I am glad to have."

The king gave 1000 gold coins for red peacock.

Tenaliram was present there when that peacock was presented to the king. While the king was talking to the courtier he smelled a faint smell of paint.

Tenali left the court and asked his servant to find the good painters of the town. Tenaliram asked him to paint five peacocks with red paint.

Next day, Tenalirama took the painter and five peacocks with him to the court. Tenalirama said, " Sir, Yesterday you received one red peacock today I have five more peacocks. And while you gave twenty five thousand gold coins for one I ‘m ready to sell five for only 1000 gold coins."

The king again found them naturally red. And the king gave an order to Tenalirama "You can take 1000 gold coins from the royal treasury"

On hearing this Tenali said "Sir you should give award to this painter as he painted the peacock so beautifully as to make them look naturally red"

King asked "Are they not naturally red?"

"No you smell them closely and you would get the faint smell of the pain” said the Tenalirama

The kind did so and awarded the painter handsomely. But that courtier was punished.

Tenali Ramakrishna and Cats

  Long long ago there was a clever man called Tenali Ramakrishna. He was minister to a great king called Krishna Raya. Once in that city there was lot of problems due to rats. They were eating all sorts of books and papers. They also used to make holes in wooden shelves and also eat rice. Sometimes they even nibbled the ears of little clever girls. Everybody knows that Cats Kill rats. But there were so many rats in the city but very few cats. So the king asked every house in the city to grow cats. But cats need milk to drink. Most of the houses did not have cows. So the king gave cows to every house and asked them to grow them too. All people were happy and used to give cats lot of milk to drink.

Tenali Ramakrishna was a clever man. He decided not to give milk to cat. So the first day he boiled the milk and poured it in a pan. He gave the piping hot milk to the cat. The cat, which was hungry came and sipped the milk from the pan. Since the milk was hot it burnt its mouth. The cat ran away. The next day and the next Tenali Ramakrishna did the same thing. After a few days he stopped giving milk to the cat and started drinking it himself.

Tenali Ramakrishna’s cat was hungry and all other cats were fat and happy. One day the king wanted to see all the cats given by him and give prize to the fat cat. He was very angry with Tenali Ramakrishna for not growing his cat properly. Then Tenali Ramakrishna told the king that he was not lucky since his cat did not drink any milk. The king wanted to put Tenali Ramakrishna in Jail for telling a lie and wanted him to prove what he said.

Then Tenali Ramakrishna brought the pan of milk and his cat. The cat on seeing the milk ran away. It thought that it was being given again hot milk. The king pitied Tenali Ramakrishna and let him away. The clever Tenali Ramakrishna lived happily forever drinking lots and lots of milk.