satya harishchandra (n. t. rama rao) is a ruler of ayodhya belongs to suryavasam, he is one among the six kings who ruled the earth like heaven and performed a hundred rajasuya yagas, whose path of life is always the truth. once in indra's (mikkilineni) court, maharshi vishwamitra (mukkamala) had a confrontation with maharshi vashista (chittor v. nagaiah) that he will divert harishchandra's path of truth. in the beginning, asks a huge amount, without any hesitation, harishchandra agrees. vishwamitra asks to keep it with him as his property. then he creates wild animals which creates trouble when harishchandra moves for the protection of people to the forest. there he creates two beautiful women called matanga kanyalu (rajasri & meena kumari), tries to lure harishchandra and also threatens either to marry the girls or leave the kingdom. harishchandra gives away his kingdom when vishwamitra asks to repay the amount. here harishchandra asks some time, viswamitra gives a month and accompanies his assistant nakshatraka (ramana reddy). on the way, viswamitra keeps many tests to harishchandra but he stands on his true path. after reaching kaasi, he observes that people are sold in the market. due to the shortage of time, on his wife chandramathi's (s. varalakshmi) advice, he sells her along with his son lohitha. lord kaasi vishwanath (m. prabhakar reddy) buys them in the form of kaalakoushika (relangi). after that, nakshatraka asks him to pay his travel expenses for which he sells himself to veerabahu (rajanala), king of the graveyard. now harishchandra starts working as a watchman to the burial ground and chandramathi & lohitha as slaves in kaalakoushika's house. one day, unfortunately, lohitha dies due to snake bite while chandramathi is performing his funeral, harischandra stops and asks her to pay the fee without knowing her identity. but she doesn't have anything to pay then he indicates her golden wedding chain when she recognizes him as her husband because her wedding chain is invisible to others. in such pathetic situations also harishchandra did not yield. chandramathi rushes to get the money from her owner. at the same time, viswamitra creates an illusion that chadramathi has kidnapped and killed kaasiraju's son. the king gives the death sentence to her and sends her to harishchandra to execute it. even then he does not leave his true path and executes the punishment. suddenly, viswamitra, vashita & lord shiva appear. finally, viswamitra accepts his defeat before harishchandra and by the blessings of lord siva, he gets back his kingdom.