Introduction

  Tenali Ramakrishna is a folk hero in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, who figures prominently in “a host of folk stories''.

According to tradition he was a court-poet, or Ashtadiggajas, one of the eight elephants of Telugu poetry, and court-jester of Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 16th century.

 Tenali Ramalinga was born in a Telugu family as Garlapati Ramakrishna.

His father was Garlapati Ramayya, who served as a priest in the Ramalingesvara swami temple in Tenali.