Pundit's Mother Tongue

There was this eminent Pundit who was very knowledgeable and proficient in many languages. His reputation was well known in many states. Once, he decided to visit King Akbar’s court where he claimed that he could answer any question in any language. Courtiers tried checking his knowledge and asked many questions in diverse languages but Pundit proved to be too good. He answered each and every question accurately. Everyone was impressed by his knowledge. Pundit also threw an open challenge to the Emperor that by tomorrow, your expert courtiers should be able to disclose my mother tongue else I will assume that I am superior to all of your courtiers.

All the courtiers started to ask different questions to identify Pundit’s mother tongue but none of them succeeded. When everyone failed, King turned to Birbal and asked him to tackle this challenge. Birbal thought for a while and then asked for some time till the next morning. King accepted his requested and the court was adjourned till next morning.

The same night when the Pundit was fast asleep, Birbal went silently to his house and entered his bedroom. Funnily, Birbal tickled Pundit’s ear with a dry grass. Pundit’s sleep was disturbed for a while but he turned to the other side and slept again. Birbal tickled his ear again and this time Pundit woke up in anger as his sleep was disturbed. He screamed loudly, “Yevvurura Adi” meaning “Who is that”. He saw here and there but found no one so he went off to sleep again. Birbal, who was hiding, came out of the house unnoticed.

The Darbar assembled again next morning and Pundit also came soon afterwards. Pundit kept talking in different languages but no one could figure out his mother tongue. Finally Birbal broke his silence and said, ‘Telegu’ is the mother tongue of the pundit. The court sat still and the Pundit was stunned. He could not figure out how Birbal came to know about his mother tongue and accepted his defeat and left the Darbar.

King was curious and asked Birbal how he managed to find out. Birbal explained that usually a person always talks in his mother tongue while he is in distress and narrated the last night story. Akbar felt very proud of Birbal for his wisdom and quick thinking.