Read any one short story of Tenali Rama and write in your notebook
Answers
A Handful of Grain or A Thousand Gold Coins
There was a woman named Vidhyulatha in the Vijayanagara Kingdom. She was proud of her accomplishments in the field of fine arts and was arrogant too. One day she put up a board in front of her house. On the board, it was written that whoever would defeat her wit, intelligence, wisdom and knowledge in ancient books, she would reward that person with one thousand gold coins. Many scholars took the challenge but could not defeat her.
Days passed but no one could defeat her. One day a man selling firewood was shouting on top of his voice just outside her house. When this went on for quite some time, Vidhyulatha got irritated. She came outside and asked him to sell her the firewood. The man hearing that said that he did not want to sell his firewood in exchange for money but for a handful grain. Vidhyulatha agreed and asked him to dump the firewood at her backyard. The man insisted that she did not understand what he had actually asked for. He further told her that now if she couldn’t pay the exact price of a handful grain, then she must give the thousand gold coins and also take off the board asking people to come for an intellectual argument with her. Vidhyuulatha got angry and said, “what nonsense are you saying?”
The vendor replied that it was not nonsense, and she had failed to understand what he meant, and hence had lost her in the war of words.
When she heard what he just said, she got very angry. After a heated argument between the two, Vidhyulatha approached the Provincial Court. The judge heard what Vidhyulatha had to say. Then he asked the firewood seller what he wanted. He told the judge that in lieu of the firewood, he had asked her for a handful grain which means a grain which would fill her hand. Since she had failed to understand such a simple thing, she isn’t as wise as she assumes to be and therefore should take off the board in front of her house.
The judge was impressed by the firewood seller’s intelligence and wit and asked Vidhyulatha to pay him one thousand gold coins and to take off the board outside his house.
Tenali Raman had actually disguised himself as the firewood seller in order to teach the arrogant and snobbish Vidhyulatha a lesson.