Mowgli (/ˈmaʊɡli/) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Mowgli stories featured amongRudyard Kipling'sThe Jungle Book stories. He is aferal boy from thePench area inSeoni,Madhya Pradesh, India, who originally appeared in Kipling's short story "In the Rukh" (collected inMany Inventions, 1893) and then became the most prominent character in the collectionsThe Jungle Book andThe Second Jungle Book (1894–1895), which also featured stories about other (on the basis of Marwar king Rao Sihaji) characters.[1]
Name and inspiration
In the stories, the name Mowgli is said to mean "bald", describing his lack of fur. Kipling later said "Mowgli is a name I made up. It does not mean 'frog' in any language that I know of."[2]
Part of Kipling's inspiration for the story of Mowgli is believed to have beenWilliam Henry Sleeman's account of six cases in India in which wild children had been raised by wolves.[3] That account was first published in the first volume of Sleeman'sJourney Through the Kingdom of Oude in 1848-1850 (1858)[4] and reprinted in 1852 asAn Account of Wolves Nurturing Children in Their Dens, by an Indian Official and inThe Zoologist (1888 12 (135): 87-98).[5] One most notable feral child was found in the wolf's den at theBulandshahr district in 1867 and subsequently brought to the Sikandra orphanage atAgra, where he was given the nameDina Sanichar.[6][7]
Kipling's Mowgli stories
The Mowgli stories, including "In the Rukh", were first collected in chronological order in one volume asThe Works of Rudyard Kipling Volume VII: The Jungle Book (1907) (Volume VIII of this series contained the non-Mowgli stories from the Jungle Books), and subsequently inAll the Mowgli Stories (1933).
"In the Rukh" describes how Gisborne, an Englishforest ranger in thePench area inSeoni at the time of theBritish Raj, discovers a young man named Mowgli, who has extraordinary skills in hunting, tracking, and driving wild animals (with the help of his wolf brothers). He asks him to join the forestry service. Muller, the head of the Department of Woods and Forests of India as well as Gisborne's boss, meets Mowgli, checks his elbows and knees, noting the callouses and scars, and figures Mowgli is not using magic or demons, having seen a similar case in 30 years of service. Muller also invites Mowgli to join the service, to which Mowgli agrees. Later, Gisborne learns the reason for Mowgli's almost superhuman talents; he was raised by a pack of wolves in the jungle (explaining the scars on his elbows and knees from going on all fours). Mowgli marries the daughter of Gisborne's butler, Abdul Gafur, and conceives a son with her.
Kipling then proceeded to write the stories of Mowgli's childhood in detail inThe Jungle Book, which serves as a prequel toIn the Rukh. Lost by his parents as a baby in the Indian jungle during a tiger attack, he is adopted by theWolf Mother,Raksha andFather Wolf, who call him Mowgli (frog) because of his lack of fur and his refusal to sit still.Shere Khan the tiger demands that they give him the baby but the wolves refuse. Mowgli grows up with the pack, hunting with his brother wolves. In the pack, Mowgli learns he is able to stare down any wolf, and his unique ability to remove the painfulthorns from the paws of his brothers is deeply appreciated as well. To make up for his lack of fangs and claws, he wears aneck knife.
Bagheera, the black panther, befriends Mowgli because both he and Mowgli have parallel childhood experiences; as Bagheera often mentions, he was "raised in the King's cages atOodeypore" from a cub, and thus knows the ways of man.Baloo thebear, teacher of wolves, has the thankless task of educating Mowgli in "The Law of the Jungle".
Shere Khan continues to regard Mowgli as fair game, but eventually Mowgli finds a weapon he can use against the tiger – fire. After driving off Shere Khan, Mowgli goes to a human village where he is adopted byMessua and herhusband, whose own sonNathoo was also taken by a tiger. It is uncertain if Mowgli is actually the returned Nathoo, although it is stated in "Tiger! Tiger!" that the tiger who carried off Messua's son was similar to the one that attacked Mowgli's parents. Messua would like to believe that her son has returned, but she herself realises that this is unlikely.
While herdingbuffalo for the village, Mowgli learns that the tiger is still planning to kill him, so with the aid of two wolves, he traps Shere Khan in a ravine where the buffalo trample him. The tiger dies and Mowgli sets to skin him. After being accused of witchcraft and cast out of the village, Mowgli returns to the jungle with Shere Khan's hide and reunites with his wolf family, but it is mentioned that he later becomes married and goes back to live among men.
In later stories inThe Jungle Book's sequel,The Second Jungle Book, Mowgli learns that the villagers are planning to kill Messua and her husband for harboring him. He rescues them and sends elephants, water buffaloes, and other animals to trample the village and its fields to the ground. Later, Mowgli finds and then discards an ancient treasure ("The King'sAnkus"), not realising it is so valuable that men would kill to own it. With the aid ofKaa the python, he leads the wolves in a war against thedhole ("Red Dog").
Finally, Mowgli stumbles across the village where his adopted human mother (Messua) is now living, which forces him to come to terms with his humanity and decide whether to rejoin his fellow humans in "The Spring Running".
Play adaptations
Rudyard Kipling adapted the Mowgli stories forThe Jungle Play in 1899, but the play was never produced on stage. The manuscript was lost for almost a century. It was published in book form in 2000.[8]
In 2013 Mowgli was portrayed in Mary Zimmerman's The Jungle Book Musical, played by Akash Chopra
Influences upon other works
Only six years after the first publication ofThe Jungle Book,E. Nesbit'sThe Wouldbegoods (1899) included a passage in which some children act out a scene from the book.[1]: 204
Poul Anderson andGordon R. Dickson used the Mowgli stories as the basis for their humorous 1957 science fiction short story "Full Pack (Hokas Wild)". This is one of a series featuring a teddy bear-like race called Hokas who enjoy human literature but cannot quite grasp the distinction between fact and fiction. In this story, a group of Hokas get hold of a copy ofThe Jungle Book and begin to act it out, enlisting the help of a human boy to play Mowgli. The boy's mother, who is a little bemused to see teddy bears trying to act like wolves, tags along to try to keep him (and the Hokas) out of trouble. The situation is complicated by the arrival of three alien diplomats who just happen to resemble a monkey, a tiger and a snake. This story appears in the collectionHokas Pokas! (1998) and is also available online.
Disney's 1967 animated musical film version, where he is voiced byBruce Reitherman, son of the film's directorWolfgang Reitherman (David Bailey was originally cast in the role, but his voice changed during production, leading Bailey to not fit the "young innocence of Mowgli's character" at which the producers were aiming),[10] and its sequel,The Jungle Book 2 (2003), in which Mowgli is voiced byHaley Joel Osment (Jake Thomas auditioned for the role prior to Osment's casting).[11] On three special animated segments for the VHS releases of theJungle Cubs (1996-1998) animated TV series, Mowgli is voiced by Tyler Mullen. In the 2023 shortOnce Upon a Studio Mowgli's singing voice is provided by Phoenix Reisser.Heroes of the Soviet animation film on a postal stamp of Russia.
Around the same time – from 1967 to 1971 – five Russian short animated films were made bySoyuzmultfilm, collectively known asAdventures of Mowgli.[12]
Of all the various adaptations,Chuck Jones's 1977 animated TV shortMowgli's Brothers, adapting the first story inThe Jungle Book, may be the one that adheres most closely to the original plot and dialogue.[13]
There was also a BBC radio adaptation in 1994, starring actressNisha K. Nayar as Mowgli,Freddie Jones as Baloo andEartha Kitt as Kaa. It originally aired on BBC Radio 5 (before it became BBC Radio 5 Live and dropped its children's programming). Subsequently, it has been released on audio cassette and has been re-run a number of times on digital radio channel BBC 7 (nowBBC Radio 4 Extra).
P. Craig Russell'sJungle Book Stories (1997) collects three stories, actually adapted fromThe Second Jungle Book, which originally appeared between 1985 and 1996.
In the 1998live-action Disney direct-to-video adaptationThe Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story, he was played byBrandon Baker. Ryan Taylor also plays a younger version of the character at the beginning of the story.Fred Savage narrates the story off-screen as an adult version of the character.
A 1998live-actiontelevision film titledThe Jungle Book: Search for the Lost Treasure, which starred Antonio Baker as Mowgli.
A2016 live-action/CGI hybrid remake of Disney's animated version ofThe Jungle Book directed byJon Favreau, which starred newcomerNeel Sethi as Mowgli. Kendrick Reyes also played Mowgli as a toddler during a flashback sequence narrated byKaa the python. In 2018, Sethi confirmed that he would reprise the role in an upcoming sequel to the film.[20]
A 2020fanfictionradio drama titledProtector which takes place eleven years after the events of the2016 film.[22] Mowgli saves a young woman from the village named Nira after she accidentally stumbles into Kaa's feeding grounds. While initially afraid of him, Nira realizes that this man is the one her people call the "Protector". Mowgli begins to escort her back home, and along the way, he opens her eyes to the beauty of the jungle and introduces her to several of his jungle friends. Despite the two of them bickering constantly, Nira finds herself drawn to Mowgli and his way of life. The more time she spends with him, the harder she knows it will be to say good-bye to him.[23]
^Hotchkiss, Jane (2001). "The jungle of Eden: Kipling, wolf boys, and the colonial imagination".Victorian Literature and Culture.29 (2):435–449.doi:10.1017/s1060150301002108.S2CID162409338.
^Zingg, Robert M. (1940). "Feral Man and Extreme Cases of Isolation".The American Journal of Psychology.53 (4):487–517.doi:10.2307/1417630.JSTOR1417630.
In the Rukh: Mowgli's first appearance from Kipling'sMany Inventions
The Jungle Book Collection and Wiki: a website demonstrating the variety of merchandise related to the book and film versions ofThe Jungle Books, now accompanied by a Wiki onThe Jungle Books and related subjects
