THE TIGER KING
- KALKI
MIND MAP:
ART INTEGRATION:
ASSIGNMENT
Q1. What is the author’s indirect comment on subjecting innocent animals to the
willfulness of human beings?
Ans. Through this satirical story the author has rightly portrayed how human
beings have subjected innocent animals to untold torture and death, merely to
fulfill their own whims and fancies. The maharaja’s indiscriminate killing of tigers
led to their extinction in some states, but the maharaja was oblivious to the grave
consequences his action was leading to. In order to prove an astrologer wrong the
maharaja went on a killing spree proving his dominance over the hapless animals.
Q2. What did the Maharaja do when he stood in danger of losing his kingdom in
refusing the British officer permission for tiger hunting?
Ans. The Maharaja obtained some fifty expensive diamond rings of different
designs from a British Jewellery Company in Calcutta and send them to the British
officer’s good lady expecting her to choose one or two rings and send the rest
back. But she kept all the rings and thanked the Maharaja for the gift. This cost
the Maharaja three lakh rupees; but his kingdom was saved.
Q3. What plan did the Maharaja think of to fulfill his vow to kill hundred tigers
after the tiger population became extinct in his state?
Ans. When the tiger population became extinct in his state the Maharaja planned
to marry a girl of royal family of a native state with a large tiger population so that
he would kill the remaining thirty tigers in the state of his father –in-law when he
visits that.
Q4. How the 100th tiger was finally found & killed?
Ans. The Dewan took the 100th tiger which he had brought from people’s park in
Madras. The tiger wondered into Maharaja’s presence. The king shot it but it was
not killed; the hunters killed to escape from king’s anger.
Q5. What caused the death of the Maharaja?
Ans. The prophecy of the chief astrologer came true. A toy-wooden tiger-the
hundredth tiger killed the Maharaja. The silver quill on the wooden tiger pierced
his hand when he was playing with it on the crown prince’s third birthday. It caused
a suppurating sore that spread all over the arm. He was operated but died.
Q6. How did the Tiger King meet his end? What is ironical about his death?
Ans. The wooden toy tiger the king had got as a birthday present for his son had
been carved by an unskilled carpenter. It had a rough surface with tiny slivers of
wood standing up like quills all over it. One of those slivers pierced the Maharaja’s
right hand and although the king pulled it, his arm got infected. In four days, it
developed into a suppurating sore and spread all over the arm. The king died while
being operated upon.
The king’s death is ironical but not surprising for the reader who is, in fact, looking
forward to it. Having ‘killed’ the 100 th tiger, the king is jubilant for he has fulfilled
his vow and disproved the prediction of the royal astrologer. He is now at ease for
he thinks he cannot die of a tiger’s attack. No wonder, he orders the ‘dead’ tiger to
be taken in a procession through the town and gets a tomb erected over it. All this
while he does not know that the 100th victim was not killed by him but by other
hunters. That is indeed quite ironical. Death is lurking around him and the king is
unaware of it. Again, it is ironical that a king who has killed 99 tigers and is bold
and fearless dies of a mere ‘sliver’ on the body of a wooden tiger. Thus, ironically
death does come to him from a tiger.
