Tenali Raman Stories for Kids: 6 Short Stories of Wit and Wisdom

In South India, the clever courtier every child knows is Tenali Raman. Where Birbal is calm and dignified, Tenali is mischievous, funny and often a little cheeky, the kind of person who gets into trouble and then talks his way out of it with a grin. His stories are told in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and across India, and have been adapted into books, comics and cartoons.

Tenali Ramakrishna was a real poet who lived in the sixteenth century at the court of Krishnadevaraya, the great emperor of Vijayanagara, with its capital at Hampi. He is counted among the Ashtadiggajas, the eight great Telugu poets of that court, and he wrote serious devotional poetry. The funny stories about his tricks, however, are folk tales that grew around his name over the centuries. They are legends about a real man, and that is how they are best told.

1. The thieves who watered the garden

One summer there was a terrible drought, and Tenali’s garden was dying. Watering it meant drawing bucket after bucket from the well, and he was tired. One night he noticed thieves hiding in the bushes, waiting to break in. Tenali called loudly to his wife: we must hide our gold and jewels where no thief will ever find them. Let us put them in this box and throw it down the well.

He dropped a heavy box, filled only with stones, into the well. The thieves spent the whole night hauling up bucket after bucket of water to reach it, pouring the water out across the garden. By morning the well was nearly empty and the garden was soaked. When they finally pulled up the box and found stones, Tenali thanked them warmly for watering his plants.

Moral: a calm, clever mind turns danger into an advantage. Ask your child: why didn’t Tenali just shout for help?

2. The cat that would not drink milk

The king had a problem with rats, so he gave a cat to each of his courtiers, along with a cow to provide milk for it. Tenali, instead of giving the milk to his cat, gave it a bowl of milk so hot that the cat burned its mouth. After that, the cat would run away from any bowl of milk. Tenali drank the milk himself, and his cat grew lean and quick, catching plenty of rats, while everyone else’s cats grew fat and lazy.

When the king inspected the cats, he was angry to see Tenali’s so thin and accused him of starving it. Tenali asked the king to place a bowl of milk in front of it. The cat took one look and fled. Your Majesty, said Tenali, my cat does not like milk. The king laughed, and in many tellings, saw the point too: a cat with everything it wants has no reason to hunt.

Moral: comfort can make us lazy. This story is also a good one for discussing whether Tenali was fair to the cat; many children feel he was not, and that is a good conversation.

3. The royal brinjals

The king had a special garden in which grew a rare kind of brinjal, and no one else was allowed to taste it. Tenali’s wife longed to try one, so one night Tenali crept into the garden and picked a few. His wife cooked them and they were delicious. Tenali knew their young son might mention it, so before dinner he woke the boy from sleep, poured water over him, told him it was raining, and then gave him the brinjals to eat.

The next day the theft was discovered, and suspicion fell on Tenali. The king called his son and asked him what he had eaten the night before. Brinjals, said the boy, on the night it rained so hard. But there had been no rain at all. The court decided the boy must have been dreaming, and Tenali was let off.

This one is best used as a discussion story rather than as an example. Ask your child: was Tenali clever, or was he dishonest? Can someone be both?

4. The horse and the beard

The king gave each courtier a horse and fodder to raise. Tenali kept his horse in a shed with only a small hole in the wall and fed it through the hole, so the horse could only stretch its neck through. The horse grew thin but fierce. When the king asked for the horses to be shown, Tenali said his was too wild to bring out, and asked that someone come and see for himself.

A proud courtier with a long beard, who often made fun of Tenali, pushed his face to the hole to look in. The hungry horse, thinking the beard was grass, grabbed it and would not let go. The courtier had to be freed while the whole court laughed.

Moral: pride often leads straight into trouble. Ask your child: why do you think the courtier insisted on looking?

5. Sharing the reward

Tenali once had to meet the king to share a poem, but the palace guard would not let him in unless Tenali promised him half of any reward he received. Tenali agreed. When the king loved the poem and asked what reward he wanted, Tenali asked for one hundred lashes. The astonished king asked why. Because, said Tenali, I have promised half my reward to your guard. The guard received his fifty lashes, and the king, learning the truth, rewarded Tenali properly.

Moral: greed and bribery catch up with you. Ask your child: what should the guard have done?

6. Tenali and the goddess

In one of the most famous tales, Tenali prayed to the goddess Kali, and she appeared before him with a thousand faces. Instead of being frightened, Tenali burst out laughing. Surprised, the goddess asked why he was laughing. Tenali said he was wondering how she would manage with a cold, with only two hands and a thousand noses to wipe. The goddess, amused by his wit, blessed him with the gift of humour and wisdom.

Why Tenali stories are worth telling

Tenali’s stories are more complicated than Birbal’s, and that makes them more interesting to discuss. Sometimes he is clearly in the right, and sometimes he bends the rules himself. Older children enjoy deciding which is which. That kind of discussion, about whether a clever trick is also a fair one, is one of the best ways to build a child’s own sense of right and wrong.

In our live storytelling classes, children hear stories like these and then learn to retell them with expression and timing, and to defend their own opinion about whether the hero did the right thing.