2. Theme:
1.Satire on pride and stubbornness of people in power
2.Autocratic rulers were puppet kings under the patronage of British East India
Company and were ignorant about ruling their own kingdoms. They mostly engage
themselves in foolish pursuits at the cost of the common man’s money and neglect
their duties.
3.Rampant hunting of animals(here tigers) for a glamorous status or for the sake of
superstitions.
3. Introduction of the main character:
The writer introduces the main character of the story – the
king of Pratibandapuram. The king is a hero due to his
bravery. He is given a list of titles to emphasize on his
greatness. However, the king is better known as “The Tiger
King”. The reason for him being called so shall be revealed in
the lesson ahead.
4. Stuka bomber- a German dive
bomber and ground attack
aircraft
The writer tells us that he
would let us know why the
king was called ‘The Tiger
King’. He further promises
the reader that he will not go
back on his promise even if
he is under the threat of an
attack by a Stuka Bomber
aircraft. Instead, he says that
the Stuka bomber aircraft
can go back because he is
not scared of it and he will
tell the reader why the king
was called the tiger king.
5. The king has been described as a man of
indomitable courage but the author sadly
expresses that he is already dead. However, the
author wants to elaborate on the interesting
manner of his death that is revealed in the end
of the story.
6. When the tiger king was born, astrologers had predicted at that
time that one day the tiger king would die. This prediction is
meaningless because as a matter of fact everyone has to die one
day.
7. As the astrologers reveal their secret prediction, a miracle took place. The 10-
day old tiger king whose name was Jilani Jung Jang Bahadur spoke up. All the
listeners were surprised to see a 10- day old baby speak. The tiger king called out
to the wise astrologers and the main astrologer removed his spectacles and
looked intently at the little baby. The tiger king said in its squeaky voice that all
those who are born have to die one day and he did not need their predictions to
know this fact. He added that if they told him the manner of his death, that would
make some sense to him.
11. The Crown Prince Jung Jung Bahadur grew taller
and stronger as the days passed by there were no
other miracles in his childhood.
As a boy, he drank the milk of an English cow, was
brought up by an English governess, got lessons in
English by an Englishman and watched English
films just like the Crown princes of other Indian
states did.
When the Crown Prince Jung Jung Bahadur turned
twenty years of age, the royal state which had been
in the custody of the court of wards was given to
him.
12. Court of Wards
The Court of Wards was a
legal body created by the
East India Company. Its
purpose was to protect
heirs and their estates
when the heir was deemed
to be a minor and
therefore incapable of
acting independently.
13. All the people who lived in the kingdom were aware of the
astrologer’s prediction. Many of the people discussed these
predictions and one day, King Jung Jung Bahadur came to
know of it.
The Pratibandapuram state had many forests which had a
number of tigers in them. The Maharaja was aware of an old
saying that you could kill even a cow in order to protect
yourself. So, he felt that the cow which was considered to be a
holy animal could also be killed by a Hindu in order to save
himself, then no one would object if he killed a tiger in order
to protect himself. So, Maharaja Jung Jung Bahadur started
out on a tiger hunting expedition.
14. The king was thrilled when he killed his
first tiger.
15. “You must be very careful with
the hundredth tiger”.
16. “No one would hunt
a tiger except the
king. If anyone
dared to fling a
stone at a tiger, all
his property will be
It was a celebration time for the tigers as an official announcement
was made to ban hunting of tigers.
17. The king of Pratibandapuram
took an oath that he would
attend to all other matters of
the kingdom only after he had
killed 100 tigers.
18. It was not that he feared the
tiger. When the king went on his
hunting expeditions, he faced
danger many times. At times,
his bullet missed its target and
the tiger jumped upon him. The
king would fight with the tigers
barehanded but each time he
won and killed the tiger.
19. A high ranking british officer came visiting
Pratibandapuram. He was fond of hunting
tigers and fonder of being photographed
with a tiger’s carcass.
20. The king was so firm in his
resolve that he refused him
permission. He also denied
him the permission to be
photographed with a dead
tiger.
This adamant attitude could
have cost him his throne.
21. However, to save his throne and to please the British
official, the Maharaja sent 50 samples of expensive
diamond rings to the officer’s good lady. And the good lady
instead of choosing one or two, accepted the whole lot it
and sent a reply: “Thank you very much for your gifts.”
22. The king was very successful in his tiger hunting missions. In a
span of ten years he had killed seventy tigers. An unplanned
problem stopped his mission. The problem was that there
were no more tigers in Pratibandapuram. The writer creates
humour when he says that maybe the tigers practiced birth
control activities and did not produce offsprings or maybe
they committed suicide. He also adds that it could be that they
ran away from Pratibandapuram because they did not want to
be killed by an Indian and on the other hand they want it to be
killed by a Britisher.
23. After killing seventy tigers,
all the tigers of
Pratibandapuram became
extinct. The Maharaja
decided to marry the
princess of a state having
the largest tiger
population.
24. He killed five or six tigers each time
he visited his father in law. In this
manner he could kill ninety nine
tigers.
25. As the 100th tiger was not
found, the Maharaja
became furious and
stubborn. As a result,
many officers lost their
jobs and the land tax was
doubled.
The dewan was
determined to find a tiger
so that everyone could be
saved from the Maharaja’s
anger.
26. The dewan decided to bring the
old tiger that was brought from
the People’s Park in Madras, in
front of the Maharaja so that he
can fulfill his wish of killing the
hundredth tiger.
27. The Maharaja missed his
mark and the tiger fainted
from the shock of the
bullet whizzing past. The
hunters realised that if the
Maharaja comes to know
that he had missed his
target, they would lose
their jobs.
So one of the hunters
took aim from a distance
of 1 foot and shot the
28. After a few days, the maharaja’s son’s third
birthday was celebrated. Till that time the king
had been so engrossed in tiger hunting that he
had never spent any time with his family. Now,
as he had fulfilled his vow of killing hundred
tigers, he gave his attention to his child. King
Jung Jung Bahadur wanted to give a special gift
to his son on his birthday and so he went to the
shopping centre in Pratibandapuram. He
searched every shop but could not find any
suitable gift for his son. Finally, he saw a
wooden tiger in a toy shop and considered it to
be the perfect gift.
29. The king was very happy and he took the tiger with him. The king
and his son played with the wooden tiger. The tiger had been
made by an unskilled carpenter and it had tiny shavings of wood
pricking out of it. One of the shavings pierced the maharaja’s right
hand. The Maharaja pulled it out and continue to play with the
prince.
30. The next day, there was a lot of infection in the maharaja’s
right hand due to that shaving of wood that had pricked his
hand. In a period of four days, the infection turned into a
wound full of pus and spread all over the king’s right arm.
31. Three famous surgeons
were called from Madras
and they decided to
operate upon the king.
After the operation the
surgeons came out of the
theater and said that the
operation was successful
and the Maharaja was
dead.
32. Here the surgeons’ words are contradictory because if the king died, it meant that
the operation was unsuccessful whereas they said that it was successful. It is
because they were supporting the words of the astrologer. The wooden tiger was
the hundredth tiger that had killed the king Jung Jung Bahadur and thus, made the
astrologer’s prediction true. So, in this manner the hundredth tiger took revenge
upon the tiger king and killed him.
