Paintings of Tenali Ramakrishna

Sat June 4, 2011 by Kunal Bansal

King Krishna Raya built a beautiful mansion. He arranged for the painting of the walls of the mansion with appropriate pictures. After the completion of the painting, the painter reported to the king. One day, King, his ministers and others went to the mansion. He was watching the paintings. Suddenly Tenali Ramakrishna noticed a picture which was painted sideways had limbs of only one side. The king said ?You must imagine it all" Tenali Ramakrishna with apparent sincerity said, "Yes now, I understand it. After a long time, Ramakrishna told the king "Sir from the day we visited your new mansion, I have started practicing doing painting. I have become an expert in it now and I will be pleased if you could witness some of my beautiful executions." The king then entrusted to him the entire responsibility of painting the walls of a mansion. He instructed Ramakrishna to remove the old paintings and in its place put some of his beautiful paintings. Ramakrishna then rubbed away all the paintings. He painted a nail in one place, a finger in another place, a hand in a third, thus he filled the whole house with his paintings and completely spoiled its look. He then went to King and said: "Sir, I have finished all my paintings" The King taking visits the building with several people. On seeing the pictures, he said, "Ramakrishna I don?t see any beautiful paintings. I see only odd limbs and fragments." Ramakrishna said: "You must imagine all the other portions to exist on the other side. It seems you have forgotten that obvious thing?" On hearing Ramakrishna's reply, the king felt that the same words which he said to Ramakrishna long back was turning back to his ears. He left the place without making any comment.