You will remember that Mowgli spent a great part of his life in the Seeonee Wolf-Pack, learning the Law from Baloo, the Brown Bear and it was Baloo who told him, when the boy grew impatient at the constant orders, that the Law was like the Giant Creeper, because it dropped across every one's back and no one could escape.
#Rudyard kipling law of the jungle code
The Law of the Jungle-which is by far the oldest law in the world-has arranged for almost every kind of accident that may befall the Jungle People, till now its code is as perfect as time and custom can make it. The British rule of India certainly did happen and Kipling’s writings show how a British author was impacted by living in a Hindu culture.The pools are shrunk-the streams are dry, The clear influence from traditional stories and the elements of the British literary tradition which Kipling adds to them are important on a historical level.
Yes, the Jungle Books may be added to the Hindu literary tradition. Indeed, it seems as though he quite remembered them and used them to make his own stories for children. He never forgot the stories that were told to him as a child. Kipling writes of his childhood in India: “In the afternoon heats before we took our sleep, she or Meeta would tell us stories and Indian nursery sons all unforgotten,” (Something 4). So, when Kipling composed his stories on the Bandar-log did he have Hanuman and the Ramayana in mind? I think the answer is very possibly he did. It seems that through a certain light they may be seen as such, especially when read when looking for the aspects of dharma and ahimsa, and when understanding the stories as a search for the other, which is a common theme in Hindu literature.“‘Not to do violence is the highest dharma’,” (Badrinath 114). Knowing all of these connections, the question arises as to whether or not the stories within the Jungle Books can be considered part of the Hindu literature tradition. The Mother Wolf who adopts Mowgli and names him is named Raksha after the demoness Kipling goes so far as to include the epithet “the Demon” after her name. The bull that Mowgli rides while pursuing Shere Khan is named Rama.
There are other elements of The Ramayana interspersed throughout Kipling’s children’s books. While there he becomes a part of the jungle and is mentored by Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear, all in preparation for the day when he will defeat the tiger, Shere Khan, who originally caused him to come to the jungle. The tales in these two volumes tell the story of Mowgli, a young Indian boy who is separated from his parents by a tiger attack and adopted by wolves. On doing some research and reacquainting myself with the stories themselves, I found that though Hanuman and his people are not exactly like the singing and dancing apes who desperately want fire, they do share many qualities with the Bandar-log of Rudyard Kipling’s the Jungle Books. I realized that these monkey people sounded quite similar to King Louie and the other monkeys from Disney’s film the Jungle Book. While reading The Ramayana, I found myself pausing at the description of Hanuman, one of the monkey people who feature in this epic tale.
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