RUDYARD KIPLING

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865 - January 18, 1936) was a
British author and poet, born in India. He is best known for the book of
children's talesThe Jungle Book (1894), the Indian spy novel Kim (1901), the
poems "Gunga Din"(1892), and "If-" (1895), as well as many of his short
stories.The height of Kipling's popularity was the first decade of the 20th
century: in 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and still
remains its youngest-ever recipient, as well as the first English language
writer to receive the prize.In his own lifetime he was primarily regarded as a
poet, and was offered a knighthood and the post of British poet laureate,
though he turned them both down

THE JUNGLE BOOK (1894)
The Jungle Book - is a collection of stories by English Nobel laureate Rudyard
Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 18931894. The
original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John
Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his
childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and
worked there for about six-and-half years. These stories were written when
Kipling lived in Vermont.

The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which
followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are
fables, using animals in ananthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons.
The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the
safety of individuals, families and communities. Kipling put in them nearly
everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle. Other
readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics and society
of the time.

CHARACTERS
Mowgli (feral child)
Jungle characters
Akela# (Indian Wolf), "alone" in Hindi; leader of the wolf pack.
Raksha# (Indian Wolf), "protection" in Hindi; Mowgli's adoptive mother. The
name supposedly means "the demon" in the wolves' language, and refers to her
ferocity
Father Wolf (Indian Wolf); Raksha's mate and Mowgli's adoptive father. The
1967 film names him "Rama," meaning "pleasant, supreme."
Baloo# (Sloth Bear); Mowgli's best friend. In Kipling's book, he is described as
a sleepy old sloth bear, who teaches Mowgli the law of the
jungle. Bhaaloo (Devanagari:

) is "bear" in Hindi.
Bagheera# (melanistic leopard known as a black panther);
from baagh (Devanagari: ) in Sanskrit or Hindi meaning "tiger"
Bandar-log, the Monkeys. Notorious because "they have no king" or any
effective leadership at all. They kidnap the very young Mowgli, who is rescued
by Bagheera, Baloo and Kaa.
Ko (Crow)
Kaa (Indian python)

Hathi (Indian Elephant); Haathee (Devanagari: ) meaning "elephant"
in Hindi
Hathi's sons (elephants)
Tabaqui (Golden jackal); he feeds on scraps from either Shere Khan or the
wolves of the Seeonee Pack. In some adaptions, he is a hyena.
Mang (bat)
Shere Khan# (Bengal Tiger); sher (Hindi: , pronounced [er]) is a word
for "lion" in Hindi[1]
Rama (water buffalo)
Mysa (water buffalo)
Chil (in earlier editions called Rann) (kite); "cheel" means kite in Hindi
Ikki (in earlier editions called Sahi < Hindi [ Devanagari ]: ) (porcupine)
Tha (Elephant) The first of the elephants according to Hathi
Thuu (aka White Hood) (Cobra) A blind albino Cobra. Mowgli gives him the
derisory epithet "Thuu" (allegedly meaning "it has dried" referring to the
poison in Thuu's fangs) upon discovering that the supposedly deadly cobra's
fangs are in fact withered and dried up from age and disuse.

Grey Brother (Indian Wolf); the oldest of Father Wolf and Raksha's cubs
Phaona (Indian Wolf) Fao's son
The Dholes
Oo (Turtle)
Jacala (Crocodile). In Red Dog it is stated that Mowgli broke a knife on
Jacala's back during a protracted fight with him.
Mor (Peacock)
Won-Tolla (Indian Wolf) An outlier who warns Mowgli's tribe of the Dhole
Chikai (Rat)
Phao (Wolf) Son of Phaona, leader of The Free People
Ferao (Woodpecker)







Human characters:
Messua; wife of the richest man of the human village, who decides to
adopt the wild Mowgli, believing (probably mistakenly) that he is their
long-lost son Nathoo
Messua's husband; the richest man of the village; his name is not
given

Nathoo; the long-lost son of Messua and her husband, who has been snatched
by a tiger (arguably, Shere Khan)
Buldeo (village hunter) from the Hindi or Sanskrit Baladeva, which means
"powerful lord"; the elderly (or at least middle-aged) chief hunter of Messua's
village. Buldeo is boastful and arrogant, and is furious when Mowgli, who knows
what the jungle is really like, contradicts some of Buldeo's more fanciful stories
about the jungle.
Kamya: one of the village boys who herd buffalo along with Mowgli. In contrast
to Messua's husband, he has a name but no description.