Once in the court of Krishnadevaraya, there was a debate in which the scholars of the royal court popularly known as Ashta Diggajas (The eight elephants guarding the eight points of the compass) participating. Allasani Peddana, Nandi Thimmana, Madayyagari Mallana, Dhurjati, Ayyalaraju Ramambhadrudu, Pingali Surana, Ramaraja Bhushanudu,Tenali Ramakrishnudu were among them. Peddanna was asking questions and Ramaraja Bhushanudu was answering them with meaning and interpretations. Ramakrishnudu was watching the proceedings quietly. Krishnadevaraya wanted to know who among them was the best. He wanted them to frame a meaningful sentence consisting of five letters each letter having the same meaning in five different Languages. ‘Whoever comes out with an answer to this question by seven tomorrow morning will be suitably rewarded’, he added.
As his house was far away, Ramakrishna decided to spend the night in his brother-in-law’s house. When he was provided with a comfortable bed for the night, Ramakrishna refused to sleep on it. He said. ‘I have to think of an answer to a question put by the king by tomorrow morning. A bed like this is certain to put me to sleep in no time. So, provide a cot for me in the cow shed.’
As he was lying on the cot, at one o’clock in the night, one of the cows in the shed in the shed gave birth a calf. Ramakrishna called out to his brother-in-law about this. His brother-in-law wanted to know as to which cow had given had given birth to a calf as he had given different names to his cows like Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswasti, etc. He asked Ramakrishna, ‘Ye Aav Ra Bava’ (which cow is that, Oh brother-in-law).
When Ramakrishna heard this, his joy knew no bounds as he had found an answer to the king’s question. So, he too repeated the phrase again and again. His brother-in-law thought that Ramakrishna was behaving in this strange manner due to lack of sleep.
The next morning, Ramakrishna went to the royal court and found that no one else had solution to the question. All others were convinced it was not possible to frame such a sentence. Ramakrishna was a great devotee of the Divine Mother. He told the king that with the blessings of the Divine Mother; he had found an answer to the question. ‘Ye Aav Ra Ba Va’ is the answer, he said. Every one was intrigued. Then he explained, ‘ ‘Ye’ in Marati, Aav’ in Hindi, ‘Ra’ in Telugu, ‘Ba’ in Kannada and ‘Va’ in Tamil convey the same meaning, i.e, ‘Come’.’ Five languages are represented in this sentence. The previous night Ramakrishna was constantly contemplating on the Divine Mother. It was due to his native wit and divine grace he found the solution. (SSS Vol.39, p.51-53)