THE TIGER KING

-Kalki-
Short Answer Questions :
(1) What led the Maharaja to start out on the tiger hunt?

Ans. When the Maharaja was born, a prophecy was made that the reason of his death
would be a tiger. The Maharaja wanted to prove the prediction wrong. After he killed
the first tiger, the astrologer told him that he would have to kill a hundred tigers as the
prophecy was that the hundredth tiger would cause his death. So, the Maharaja started
out on a tiger hunt to save his life.

(2) What gave the astrologers the greatest surprise of their life while they were
studying the horoscope of the ten-day old prince?

Ans. The astrologers predicted that the prince would grow up to be a great warrior,
hero and champion, but he would die one day. At that moment, the infant prince began
to speak clearly and wisely, saying that everyone was destined to die one day and that
they should rather tell him the manner of his death. This miracle, of the ten-day old
prince speaking, gave the astrologers the greatest surprise of their life.

(3) What was the reason for the Tiger King's sudden decision to marry?

Ans. Within ten years of his tiger hunt, the Maharaja killed seventy tigers. This made the
tiger population extinct in his own state. So, he decided to marry a girl from the royal
family of a state with a large population of tigers, so that he could find. the remaining
thirty tigers to kill, and thus prove the prophecy concerning his death wrong.

(4) How did the Maharaja please a high-ranking British official?

Ans. The Maharaja did not permit a high-ranking British official to conduct a tiger hunt
in his state. This offended the official and might have resulted in the Maharaja's losing
his kingdom However, the Maharaja pleased the official by sending his wife a gift of fifty
diamond rings worth three lakh rupees. He had actually sent these rings as samples to
choose from, but the lady kept all of them.

(5) Why did the Maharaja order the dewan to double the land tax?

Ans. When the Maharaja had killed ninety-nine tigers and the hundredth tiger was hard
to find, there came the news of the hundredth tiger from a hillside village. The Maharaja
announced a three-year exemption from all taxes for that village. However, days passed
and the tiger could not be seen anywhere. The angry Maharaja, therefore, ordered the
Dewan to double the land tax for that village in frustration and anger.

(6) How did the dewan manage to arrange the hundredth tiger for the Maharaja?
Ans. The Maharaja’s tension was mounting because he could not find the hundredth
tiger. He sacked many officials and the dewan was afraid that he too would lose his job.
So he got an old, weak tiger from the People's Park, Madras. At midnight, the dewan and
his wife dragged the tiger into the car and took him to the forest where the Maharaja
was hunting and left it there.

(7) How did the Tiger King meet his end? What is ironical about his fate?

Ans. The Tiger King bought a wooden toy tiger for his son's birthday. It was crafted by
an unskilled carpenter. Tiny slivers of wood stood out all over it like quills. One of the
slivers pierced the Maharaja's hand. The infection soon spread all over his arm and he
could not survive. The irony about his fate is that the king killed many tigers, sometimes
even with his bare hands, but a harmless toy tiger proved to be the reason of his death.
His death was thus destined and the irony lay in his failure to survive the ominous
prediction.

Long Answer Questions

(1) The astrologer's prediction about the death of the Tiger King came to be true.
Do you agree with this statement?

Ans. The astrologer had predicted that no harm would come to the Tiger King till he
killed ninety-nine tigers. He had to be wary of the hundredth tiger. This statement of the
astrologer forced the king to go on a killing spree.
Tiger killing was banned in the state and the king even married in a bid to kill the
hundredth tiger. However, in spite of all his efforts to avert the danger, the Tiger King
was killed by the hundredth tiger, which was a crude wooden toy bought for the prince.
The wooden tiger killed the king merely by a sliver of wood that pierced his right hand.
The wound developed an infection and soon it spread all over the arm. The best
surgeons failed to save the king and thus the astrologer's prediction about the death of
the Tiger King proved to be correct.

(2) How would you describe the behaviour of the Maharaja's minions towards
him? Do you find them truly sincere towards him or are they driven by fear when
they obey him? Do we find a similarity in today's political order?

Ans. Conceited, ruthless, cruel and driven by whims and fancies, the Maharaja belongs
to the typical ruling class in India. Devoid of any logic or reasoning powers, the
Maharaja is happy when he comes to know about the presence of the hundredth tiger in
a village. Although the dewan is an adviser to the Maharaja, he knows that going against
him can have disastrous consequences. So, the dewan supports his marriage to a
princess whose kingdom has a sizeable tiger population. When the hundredth tiger
cannot be found, the dewan plants a tiger for the Maharaja to shoot, just to save himself.
When the king misses his mark, his minions kill the emaciated tiger themselves to save
their jobs. None of his minions wants to incur his wrath by going against him.
Undoubtedly, it is fear of the authority of the king that makes the minions work for the
king. The situation in the present times is the same. Everybody has their own axe to
grind. Nobody is working for the welfare of the country. Lies, injustice and greed reign
supreme.

(3) The story is a satire on the conceit of those in power. How does the author
employ the literary device of dramatic irony in the story?

Ans. The Tiger King is replete with irony that reveals the follies of autocratic rulers who
bend laws to suit their selfish desires. Dramatic irony is a literary device whereby the
readers are aware of something that the character is unaware of. Kalki effectively uses
the tool of dramatic irony in the story. For example, after shooting the hundredth tiger,
the king believed that it was dead. But the tiger had only fainted from the shock of the
bullet flying past him. The readers anticipate the Maharaja’s doom as he celebrates his
triumph over his destiny. The irony comes into play when the king buys a wooden toy
tiger for his son and gets injured from the slivers of wood. He dies due to an infection
from the wooden sliver, as he has been doomed to death.

(4) What is the author 's indirect comment on subjecting innocent animals to the
wilfulness of human beings?

Ans. The author wants to tell his readers that killing innocent animals for fulfilling one's
whims and fancies is wrong and sinful. The Tiger King goes on a hunting spree and
interferes with the course of nature by indulging in the heinous slaughter of tigers.
It is ironic that fate has other plans for a conceited man like him. The Tiger King did not
care about the tiger population that was getting extinct. His ego was satisfied only when
he thought he had killed the hundredth tiger. Fate pays him in the same coin by
awarding him death through a wooden toy tiger.
The author wants to drive home the point that all of us are subject to death. All
creatures have the right to life and we are nobody to take away other's lives. The Tiger
King breaks the divine law and so is severely punished by the divine power for his
misdeeds.