Tenali Raman and the Evil Spirit
by Arvind - 4B

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Vijayanagara, there lived a man named Tenali Raman. He looked thin, short and was very witty. He had found his way into the king’s court and used to amuse his highness with his poetry.

Suddenly, one night, the king was possesed by an evil spirit. The next day, two dignitaries from Nepal and China arrived. As the king was possesed by an evil spirit, he started insulting the dignitaries.
The dignitaries became angry and said, “For this insult, we declare a war.”

While the king was out, he appointed the first beggar he saw as the commander of the army. Tenali Raman was shocked. He said,” Your majesty, this cannot be possible. We are fighting against the mighty armies of China and Nepal and you have appointed this beggar as the commander of the army!” The king did not reply.

Tenali Raman figured that the king was possesed by an evil spirit. That was why he was acting so strange. He spent all his time composing a magical poem to extract the evil spirit from the king.

Tenali Raman went to the court, but the king said, “You cannot come to the court again.” So after three days, he managed to get into the court in the guise of an old man. As soon as he entered, he started reciting his poetry and removed the evil spirit from the king. After he did this, the king came back to his senses and he rewarded Tenali Raman handsomely.

After that the king said, “ The least I can do is to apologise to those dignitaries by inviting them to a vegetarian banquet.” Everyone laughed at this.