Is there anyone who isn’t familiar with the famous character ‘Mowgli’? Hopefully none. The main character of the evergreen ‘The Jungle Book’ (1894), a collection of stories written by Rudyard Kipling, is a huge part of our childhood.
Mowgli is a human child raised by wolves in the jungle. In these tales, the animals proved to be both Mowgli’s allies and adversaries. Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther along with many others, are Mowgli’s friends. But Shere Khan the tiger is his biggest enemy. The stories are set in a forest in India.
Kipling was born in India and spent the first five 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. The original publications contained illustrations, some by Rudyard’s father, John Lockwood Kipling. ‘The Jungle Book’ has remained popular, partly through its many adaptations for film and other media.
Picture credit: google