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Story Of Guru Raghavendra Swamy And Adoni Nawab

There is an interesting story of Adoni Nawab and Guru Raghavendra Swamy and the story shows the greatness of Guru. Governor of Adoni, Nawab Siddi Masud Khan, a deputy under the Sultan of Bijapur, Ibrahim Adil Shah II, who had a high regard for Sri Raghavendra Swamy, wanted to test whether Guru possessed powers to enact miracles and was qualified for the title of Jagadguru conferred upon him by the Sultan.

Inspired by the scholarly wisdom of Sri Raghavendra Swamy and his mastery over the Vedas and other religious text, the Sultan of Bijapur, Ibrahim Adil Shah II conferred the title ‘Jagadguru’ on the Guru and presented him with a white regal umbrella that only kinds and emperors were allowed to have. It is said that this act of the Sultan made the Adoni Nawab jealous.

Adoni Nawab arranged a meeting with Guru Raghavendra Swamy and brought fresh meat concealed in a silver casket.

But on meeting scholarly and powerful but at the same time kind and simple Guru Raghavendra, he felt ashamed of his meanness in bringing meat as offering.

The gracious Guru who knew about the plan of Adoni Nawab through his intuition, changed the content of the casket into fruits and vegetable by sprinkling holy water on it from his kamandalu.

On opening the casket, the Nawab was humbled and he fell at the feet of Sri Raghavendra Swamy.

The Nawab wanted to gift a village in the Adoni region to the Guru, who chose the village of Manchala on the banks of the Tungabhadra River. Manchala later came to be known as Mantralayam. The Nawab was only too pleased to offer the village and persuaded a khazi, to whom it had been allotted, to give up the place.