The Jungle Book: Rudyard Kipling’s Collection of Indian Jungle Tales

The Jungle Book comprises seven stories in the original, each of which is preceded by a short song text and followed by a somewhat longer one with its own heading. The first three tales depict the story of Mowgli, while the remaining tales mostly have individual animals as the main characters and have no connection with the Mowgli tales. (The following paragraphs use the original English names).

Chapter 1 Mowgli's Brothers

Liedtext Jagdgesang des Seoni-Rudels (Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack)

A young Indian boy is separated from his parents by the lame tiger Shere Khan's (Shere Khan) attack on them and accidentally comes across a family of wolves in the jungles of Seoni (Madhya Pradesh), near the Wainganga River, who raise him under the guidance of the she-wolf Raksha (Raksha) along with their own litter. The wolves name him "Mowgli" (with the addition of 'the frog') and he gradually learns all the skills he needs to survive in the jungle. After some time, like all wolf cubs, he is presented to the entire pack to be appraised and accepted. Through the intercession of Baloo (Baloo) the bear, the "teacher of laws", and Bagheera the black panther, he is accepted into the pack. But since the leader, Akela, is already old and weak, Shere Khan, who incessantly demands his rights to the boy, succeeds in bringing more and more wolves over to his side until, after years, the leaderless and undisciplined pack is ready to cast Mowgli out. Forewarned and provided with the weapon of fire that all animals fear, he can at least prevent the wolves and Shere Khan from attacking him. Having been made emphatically aware that he is human, Mowgli leaves the jungle and goes back to the humans.

Chapter 2 The Hunger Dance of the Snake Kaa (Kaa's Hunting)

Songtext Wanderlied der Bandar-Log (Road Song of the Bandar-Log)

The second tale about Mowgli is timed between the events of the first story. Mowgli's friends Baloo and Bagheera have taught him how to call the various animals of the jungle when in danger, and taught him the law of the jungle. When Mowgli is kidnapped by the lawless Bandar-Log, the monkeys despised by the other animals, he is able to test his acquired skills. Baloo and Bagheera come to his aid, but can only make a difference with the help of Kaa the python.

Chapter 3. Tiger! Tiger! (Tiger! Tiger!)

Lyrics Mowgli's Song (Mowgli's Song)

In the third tale of Mowgli, it is reported how he comes to the people following the first tale and must first laboriously learn to communicate and act according to the people. He becomes a shepherd and supervises the buffaloes of the village. His wolf brothers warn Mowgli that Shere Khan, the tiger, is after him again. So Mowgli uses the buffalo to corner Shere Khan and has him trampled by the buffalo. But after his triumph over the arch-enemy, the people accuse him of witchcraft, and he is driven out of the village. Mowgli returns to the jungle to live with his wolf brothers, with whom he grew up in Raksha's litter.

Chapter 4 The White Seal

Lyrics Lukannon (Lukannon)

Unrelated to the other tales in the book is the story of Kotick, a small white seal on Saint Paul Island in the northern Pacific (the song title refers to Lukanin Bay on the east coast of that island). As Kotick plays with his peers, sealers come and drive the seals to an out-of-the-way place where they cut them down. Only Kotick is spared because of his white fur out of superstition. Horrified, Kotick tries to bring what he has seen to the attention of the other seals. But no other seal has seen the slaughter with his own eyes, and indolently and apathetically they pay no attention to him. Desperately, Kotick tries to find a way out of the seals' annual deaths in the years that follow as he grows up. At last he reaches the Manatee people, who show him a hidden place that has never been entered by humans and offers paradisiacal conditions for seals. He returns, defeats in battle the strongest seals who had to promise to follow him in case of victory, and leads his people to the new land where they can live safely.

Chapter 5. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi)

Lyrics Darzee's praise song (Darzee's Chaunt, in some editions also Darzee's Chant), sung in honour of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a little mongoose who is whisked away to the garden of a white family in India. Trustingly he becomes at home there and bravely saves the family several times from dangerous snake attacks, once from that of a krait and twice from large king cobras.

Chapter 6 Toomai of the Elephants

Liedtext Shiv und der Heuschreck (Shiv and the Grasshopper)

Toomai is a ten year old boy who accompanies his third generation father Mahut in the Garo hills (Meghalaya) to catch and train elephants. Toomai behaves very bravely and fearlessly, and his greatest desire is to become an elephant catcher. But he is told that he cannot become a catcher until he has seen the elephants' dance. Since no one has ever seen this dance, this means that he could never become an elephant catcher. But one night he rides Kala Nag ("Black Snake"), his father's elephant, into the jungle and witnesses this extraordinary event.

Chapter 7 Her Majesty's Servants (in the first edition Servants of the Queen)

Liedtext Paradelied der Lagertiere (Parade Song of the Camp Animals)

The night before a military parade, a soldier overhears the talking animals.

The Jungle Book is originally written in archaic English. Example: "Dost thou not remember the day when I gave thee thy new shoes." The animals as well as the humans express themselves in the dialogues in an old-fashioned and thus often linguistically demanding way. However, there are also translations into modern English that make the work easier to read for modern readers. The sentence then reads, for example, "Do you not remember the day when I gave you your new shoes?

The names of some characters correspond to the names of their respective species in Hindi. For example, the name Baloo (Balu) comes from the Hindi word भालू (Bhalu) for bear. Hathi (हाथी) means "elephant". Shere Khan (Shir Khan) is composed of the Hindi word शेर (sher) for tiger and the ruler title Khan. On the other hand, the book claims that Mowgli means "little frog", but this is not true for any known language.

According to Kipling, the first syllable of the name "Mowgli" should be pronounced so that it rhymes with "cow" (i.e. maʊ), and not with the English word "mow" (moʊ). In German translations, the spellings Maugli or Mogli are found, with the former corresponding to the pronunciation intended by Kipling.

Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement, used The Jungle Book to inspire and train the youngest age group. The Scout terms Wolf Cub, pack, Law of the Pack, grand howl, and den are derived directly from The Jungle Book. The group leader is often called Akela in reference to the leading wolf, other group helpers are often called Baghira, Balu or Hathi.