Tenali Ramakrishna, popularly known as Tenali Rama, was a court-poet of Krishnadeva Raya of the Vijayanagara empire. He was known for his wit and impressive poetry written in the Telugu language. Ramakrishna was called a vikata kavi and he was one of the Ashtadiggajas of the Vijayanagara court. He was also a great scholar of several languages that included Telugu, Marathi, Tamil and Kannada.
Ramakrishna was born in a village in Andhra State during the early part of the sixteenth century. He lost his father when he was very young. He was a very carefree child. From morning till night he was in the company of naughty boys. One day, Ramakrishna met a sadhu who advised him to pray Mother Kali. Ramakrishna did as advised and as soon as he completed the repetition of the mantra eleven crore and eleven times, Mother Kalika appeared. She had a thousand faces and looked terrifying. On seeing the Goddess Ramakrishna touched her feet and then burst into laughter. This aroused Kalika Devi's curiosity. She ordered him to explain what made him laugh. "Divine Mother! When we catch cold, we feel that two hands are insufficient to wipe our only nose. If, you catch cold will your two hands be enough to wipe your thousand noses? This thought made me laugh. Forgive me, I have been impudent." So saying, Ramakrishna again fell at her feet and stood up. The smile and the sense of humor of the boy pleased Kalika Devi. She blessed him to attain fame as a great jester and make people laugh. So he mastered all learnings and became famous as the great humorist, the comic poet Ramakrishna. This is a popular story about Tenali Ramakrishna. Following are some of the comic incidents which took place in the Vijayanagara empire.
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