The Law of the Jungle: Hinduism and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Books

While reading The Ramayana, I found myself pausing at the description of Hanuman, one of the monkey people who feature in this epic tale. I realized that these monkey people sounded quite similar to King Louie and the other monkeys from Disney’s film the Jungle Book. 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. 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. 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. There are other elements of The Ramayana interspersed throughout Kipling’s children’s books. The bull that Mowgli rides while pursuing Shere Khan is named Rama. 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. 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. 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 [ahimsa] is the highest dharma’,” (Badrinath 114). According to the author ...

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...m. 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. Kipling writes of his childhood in India: “In the afternoon heats before we took our sleep, she [his ayah] or Meeta would tell us stories and Indian nursery sons all unforgotten,” (Something 4). He never forgot the stories that were told to him as a child. Indeed, it seems as though he quite remembered them and used them to make his own stories for children. Yes, the Jungle Books may be added to the Hindu literary tradition. 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. 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.