VISTAS -Chapter 2 THE TIGER KING

By – KALKI

The story ‘The Tiger King’ is a satire on the pride and stubbornness of those in power. The
writer takes us to the days of autocratic and eccentric kings. These kings lived under the
thumb rule of British, hence they fear them. Most of the time the rulers were not interested in
serving the people and working for the welfare of the public; instead they spent their time in
foolish pursuits. They flouted all laws and bent them to suit their selfish interests. The
Maharaja of Pratibandapuram tried to belie what was written in his fate. The chief astrologer
had predicted that the cause of his death would be a tiger. The King tried his best to belie the
prediction. His campaign of tiger-hunting was very successful. All his strategies and wise
plans worked till he killed ninety- nine tigers. But the hundredth tiger eluded him till his
death. The irony of fate brings quite an unexpected end of the Maharaja. The hero who killed
ninety-nine tigers couldn’t kill the only one that was left. The last tiger he thought to be dead
survived. The King’s bullet had missed its mark. Ironically, the hundredth tiger which caused
his death was not a ferocious beast of blood and flesh. It was a wooden tiger. One of the
slivers of wood pierced his right hand and caused infection and a suppurating sore. It
ultimately led to his death.

Characters

1. The Tiger King: a hero of the story, the Maharaja of Pratibandapuram, also known by lofty
titles - His Highness Jamedar- General, Khiledar-Major, Sata-Vyaghra Samhari,
Maharajadhiraja Visva Bhuvana Samrat, Sir Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur, M.A.D., A.C.T.C., or
C.R.C.K.
2. Crown prince: a ten day old baby who later became the Maharaja of Pratibandhpuram.
3. Chief astrologer: a royal foreteller of the state.
4. A British high ranking officer & his secretary
5. Dewan: a chief administrative officer of the Maharaja.
6. Duraisani: the wife of the high ranking British officer, a greedy woman who takes all the 50
or so diamond rings for herself.

Gist of the story:

 The Maharaja Sir Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur was called “Tiger King” When he was just 10 days
old he asked intelligent questions to the astrologers and was told that he was born in the hour of the
Bull . The Bull and the Tiger are enemies so he would be killed by a tiger. He uttered “Let tigers
beware!”
 No other miracle took place, the child grew like any other Royal child drinking white cow’s
milk, taught by an English tutor, looked after by an English nanny and watched English films.
 When he was 20, he was crowned as king. It was then the prediction of his death by the tiger
reached the Maharaja’s ear and he in turn to safe guard himself killed a tiger and being
thrilled he told the astrologer who replied that he can kill 99 tigers but should be careful with
the 100th .
 From then on he started killing tiger and none was allowed to hunt tigers. A high-ranking
British officer visited the state that was fond of hunting tiger and his wish was declined.
 The officer requested for getting a photograph with a tiger killed by Maharaja and this
request was rejected.
 So, to please the officer’s wife he sent fifty diamond rings expecting that she would take 1 or
2 instead she kept all the rings costing three lakh of rupees and sent ‘thanks’ to the
Maharaja. But his state was secured.
 In 10 years, he killed 70 tiger and didn’t find any in Pratibandapuram so he decided to marry
a girl from royal state which had more tigers to complete his target whenever he visited his
in-laws he killed 5-6 tigers. So he killed 99 tigers and was feverishly anxious to kill the 100th
but couldn’t find news about the presence of a tiger near a village proved disappointing.
 Now the Dewan was warned of his danger, so he visited ‘People’s Park in Madras’ and
brought an old tiger and placed it in the forest and informed the Maharaja.
 The Maharaja took great care and shot the tiger and left the place with great triumph. The
bullet did not hit the tiger but out of fear the tiger had collapsed. Now the staff killed the tiger
and brought it in grand procession .
 It was the 3rd birthday of the Maharaja’s son and he wanted to buy a present from the
toyshop. He bought a wooden tiger which was poorly carved.
 While the Maharaja was playing with the prince a tiny sliver of the wooden tiger pierced his
right hand which later on caused his death. Thus, the hundredth tiger takes his final revenge
upon the “Tiger King”.

Themes

 Animals and birds are as much part of the nature as human beings. The destruction or
haphazard killing of one species may not only lead to its extinction, but it will
adversely affect the ecological balance. Those animals which serve as food for the
wild animals, will increase in large number, if the beast of prey are wiped out. Each
species, howsoever fierce, deadly, ferocious or poisonous has its role in maintaining
ecological balance in nature.
 People in power need to temper their behaviour with a sense of justice and compassion
in order to rule fairly. If they don’t, they will meet with the fate that they deserve.
  People around those in power need to influence them with their wisdom in order to
help the once who are governed unlike the Dewan in the story who is a spineless, self-
serving officer.

I Humour in the story

The story is humourous because of exaggeration used by the author to describe people and
events.
For eg;
a) The name of the King – His Highness Jamedar-General Khiledar- Major and so on
b) The author’s compulsion to tell the reason why he came to be known as ‘The tiger
king’ -ie - of Stuka bomber
Language :
Instead of conveying simple facts in a straight forward way, the author has used words and
examples which creates humour.

For eg;
a) For saying that nobody had a chance to meet the king as he was dead, he says, “as
Bharata said to Rama about Dasaratha, the king had reached the final abode.”

b) When the tiger population was getting extinct in Pratibandhapuram, to convey this
scarcity , he writes ‘who knows whether the tigers practiced birth control or
committed hara-kiri!’

c) The conversation of the king with the Dewan about marriage

Situational Humour :

a) The Dewan dragged the tiger to the car & shoved it into the seat...when they reached
the forest the tiger launched its Satyagraha & refused to get out of the car.

b) The hundredth tiger fainted from the shock of the bullet that whizzed past him

c) The shop keeper quoted a high cost for the wooden tiger as he knew that if he quoted
a low price, he would be punished under the rules of the emergency.
II Satire –

a) The story is a satire on the self importance that powerful people assume .The king just
to disprove the prophecy of the astrologer that he would meet his death from the
hundredth tiger that he kills, shouted a warning to all tigers. It was his conceit, his
 false pride because of which he went about wantonly killing tigers in his own
kingdom as well as the nearby kingdom.
b) To fulfil his ambition he put all the other matters of the kingdom at the backseat and
went on to marry a girl of a state with a large tiger population. His wavering decision
of first exempting the villagers from all the taxes on hearing the news of the presence
of a tiger in that village and then ordering to double the land taqx at his failure to find
a tiger, is another example of satire.

III Dramatic Irony :

The author has used Irony to convey ‘Pride goes before fall’. The king who wantonly
killed ninety nine tigers and adorned the walls of his palace with their skins was
killed by a toy tiger. There is also a great deal of irony in the fact that contrary to the
ferocity of the tigers, the hundredth tiger was old and ambled into the king’s presence
and stood there humbly and finally fainted from the shock of the bullet whizzing past.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

1. What gave the astrologers the greatest surprise of their life while they were studying
the horoscope of the ten-day old prince?
2. Why was it celebration time for all the tigers in Pratibandapuram?
3. How did the Maharaja please a high ranking officer?
4. Why did the Maharaja decide to get married?
5. Why did the Maharaja double the land tax?
6. How did the Tiger King meet his end? What is ironical about his fate?
7. What warning did the astrologer give the Tiger King when he killed the first tiger?
8. Did the prediction of the astrologer come to be true?
9. Did the Tiger King shoot the hundredth tiger? Give reasons for your answer.
10. What was the Dewan’s tiger like? How did he take it into the forest?

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. How did the Tiger King stand in danger of losing his kingdom? How was he able to
avoid the danger? (Delhi 2012)
2. The astrologer’s prediction about the death of the Tiger King came to be true. Do you
agree with this statement? (All India 2008)
3. Giving a bribe is an evil act. How did the king bribe the British officer to save his
kingdom? How do you view this act?
4. Even today so many believe in superstitions. What is your view about this based on
the short story of Kalki?

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