ABSTRACT
Many folktales in Andhra Pradesh purport to relate episodes from the life of Krishnadevaraya, describing his court and the doings of his queens and companions. A favourite folklore figure in South India ever since Vijayanagara times is Krishnadevaraya's jester, the irrepressible philosopher-poet Tenali Ramakrishna or Tenali Rama Linga. The historical figure Tenali Rama was an actual poet who wrote a text entitled Panduranga Mahatmya, considered one of the five greatest poetic masterpieces in Telugu. Some scholars consider him to have been a creative, almost saintly, thinker, involved in spiritual culture of the highest order. Krishnadevaraya built himself up daily with exercise, oil massages, horse riding and vigorous physical activities in the predawn hours, increasing his flexibility for his personal strength. In a hundred-pillared hall there was a sculpture of the young woman saint Andal, in a dancing pose, and in the exercise area of this hall was a bar for the dancing women to hold while doing their stretching exercises.
