151 Stories of Tenali Raman

On one full-moon night, Tenali requested the king to go for a horse ride with the prime minister. The king agreed. Inside the forest, they saw some workers were smuggling wood out of the forest. On inquiring they got to know it was for Dhirumal Seth who smuggled it to the other kingdom earning twice […]

Once, the king gifted Tenali five elephants. When he took them home, the wife was angry because they were poor and had a large family to feed. Tenali knew she was right but could do nothing since they were a royal gift. So he took them to Kali temple and got her seal on their

Once, a bird-catcher brought a beautiful rare bird for the king. Impressed the king decided to reward him but Tenali Raman stopped him. On being asked for an explanation Raman said that it was no rare bird and the bird-catcher was befooling the king. To prove, he poured water on the bird. All the colours

Once, Tenali had a dish of a seedless brinjal at the royal court. He was so impressed that he told his wife about it. She also demanded to get some for home. Since it was in the royal kitchen garden, Tenali refused but on being insisted each day, he stole a few and brought for

King Krishnadeva Raya was a great composer himself and was famous for writing Amuktha Malyada. Once the composition was facing criticism and it was being said that Allasani Peddana authored it but it was supposed to be written by the king. One day, the king during a literature discussion asked the poets to comment on

Rajguru was jealous of Tenali and kept plotting to get Tenali death sentence every now and then. In order to shape him away for ever Tenali made a plan and went to him. He told Rajguru that a very beautiful dancer had come to the city and wanted to meet him. He further added that

Once, Rajguru of the court declared that poor people were poor because they were dishonest. Wanting to prove this wrong, Tenali asked the king to give him two bags of coins. He dropped one on the street and hid behind the tree. He saw a rich merchant pass by who picked up the bag of

Tenali knew that Thathacharya, the royal family teacher and priest, was angry with him. So he thought of encountering him with intelligence and wit. So he started learning about his weaknesses and, hence, bribed the night watchman to know the priest’s schedule after dusk. The watchman told him there was no schedule but he went

Thathacharya, the royal teacher, used to cover his head and face with his cloak to avoid seeing Smarthas in the town making people call it a ‘stupid rituality’. The learned category of Smarthas was thus finding ways to teach him a lesson. So they went to Tenali for help who promised to do so. Next

Once Tenali went to his landlord’s house for collecting money but he stepped on cow dung by mistake. To wash it he went to the nearest pond. Seeing this the landlord shouted that he could not wash his dirty feet in the landlord’s pond. He hence; had to cut off the leg before he entered

Once king Babar called Tenali to visit Delhi. When Tenali came, the king announced in the court that no one should smile or laugh at his jokes so that his wittiness could be judged. Once in the court, Tenali cracked many jokes but none smiled for 15 days. On the 16th day Tenali disguised himself

The royal barber’s only task was to make the king’s daily shave. One day when he came, the king was still sleeping, so he shaved the king’s beard while he was sleeping. When the king woke up, he was very happy and asked the barber to wish for anything. The barber asked to be a

One day, the other courtiers decided to avenge Tenali for his closeness to the king. So they bribed the entrance guards to insult him asking them to say “Kunjara Yudhambu Doma Kuthuka Jochen” that meant an elephant’s fleet is stuck in a mosquito’s throat. Following orders, the guards did the same when Tenali saying he

One day the king asked romantic poet Rama Raja Bhushana to frame a stanza on beauty of  women. He immediately composed a beautiful verse, impressing the king who gave him 1,000 coins. On seeing this Tenali said that the poem was bought from Nandi Thimmana for 1,000 coins, so he asked the king to pay

One day a beautiful woman came to the court and said that she had a group of weavers who wove celestial fabric that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. The king was impressed and gave her a year to get the fabric woven, giving her the money. For one year, the woman and her