Get here the summary, questions, answers, textbook solutions, extras, and pdf of the chapter The Tiger King by Kalki of Assam Board (AHSEC / SEBA) Class 12 English supplementary reader (Vistas) textbook. However, the given notes/solutions should only be used for references and should be modified/changed according to needs.
Summary: The narrative in this chapter centres on a king who rose to fame as the Tiger King. Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur, the Maharaja of Pratibandapuram, was the man in question. Like many previous rulers, he too went by various names, but the Tiger King was the most well-known. The intriguing backstory behind this title is told in the chapter.
Some astrologers foresaw the eventual death of the infant (the future king) at the time of his birth. Every person born dies one day, the ten-day-old youngster immediately stated. If just one can predict how that person will die, then he is a skilled astrologer. Everyone was shocked when the baby began to speak, and the astrologer explained that because the Prince was born during the Bull’s hour, the Bull and the Tiger would be his foes, and the Tiger would kill him. The baby was unfazed by this and instead shouted loudly once more to warn the tigers. Now, the inhabitants of the state only remembered this rumour, which was just a myth. They would talk about the astrologer’s forecast. Later, when the young boy had grown up and was the Maharaja of Pratibandapuram, he had also learned of all of these things.
There were numerous forests in the Pratibandapuram state, and tigers could be found there. The Maharaja reasoned that there could be no argument against killing tigers in self-defence by recalling the proverb that claims one may kill even a cow in self-defence. He began looking for tigers. After killing the first tiger, he became overly excited and asked the state astrologer what he should say. The astrologer hesitantly replied that he might kill 99 tigers, but he must be very careful about the 100th.”
This time, the monarch promised that killing the 100th tiger would be his first priority, and only then would he turn his attention to state business. In addition, he declared that he was the only person in the state authorised to hunt tigers nationwide. The Maharaja initially killed a lot of tigers, frequently in perilous circumstances.
Another time, he was in danger of losing his reign. Pratibandapuram was visited by a high-ranking British official. Additionally, he enjoyed hunting tigers and yearned to do so in the state. The Maharaja, though, was adamant about forbidding it. The Maharaja was informed by the secretary of the British officer that no actual killing was necessary; only a picture in which the officer could be seen shooting the tiger with a gun was needed. However, not even this suggestion received the king’s approval. The Maharaja understood that by interfering with a British officer’s dream, he put his own monarchy in jeopardy. He sought advice from his dewan before telegraphing a request for diamond ring samples to a well-known British jewellery shop.
The British officer’s wife received all of the over fifty diamond engagement rings that arrived. The Maharaja and his subjects anticipated that the woman would select one or two rings and return the others. But a thank-you message was sent in response. A three lakh rupee bill arrived from the jewellers in two days. Even though he had lost three lakh rupees, the Maharaja felt relieved that his kingdom was secure.
The Maharaja successfully resumed his tiger hunt. He could eliminate 70 tigers in ten years, and as a result, there were no longer any tigers in the Pratibandapuram jungles. He consequently wed a woman from a royal family. The Maharaja started killing five or six tigers every time he went to see his in-laws because his father-in-law also had tigers in his jungles. He slaughtered 99 tigers and used their skins to paint the walls of his reception hall.
The Maharaja discovered there were no more tigers in his father-in-forest laws after killing the 99th tiger, which presented a problem. He got agitated and wouldn’t leave the woods until the one-hundredth tiger was located. He became more obstinate and confrontational, costing many cops their jobs. Also urged to resign was the dewan.
The Dewan made every effort to locate a tiger since he needed to keep his job. He eventually succeeded in obtaining an older tiger from Madras’s People’s Park. At night, he loaded it into his car and left it close to the Maharaja’s hunting location. The Maharaja was overjoyed to see the elderly tiger in the morning and fired very cautiously. The king gave the order to send the tiger to the capital in a large parade as the animal lay flat in a heap. The hunters learned that the tiger was still alive despite the failed shot. One of the hunters murdered it because no one wanted to witness the Maharaja’s rage when it revealed this fact to him. A tomb was erected over it after it was removed for the procession. After a few days, the Maharaja’s son’s third birthday was celebrated.
Prior to this, the monarch seldom spent any time with his family because he was focused on killing the tigers. He, therefore, wanted to give his son a special present this time. He searched the entire town for wonderful goods before finding a wooden toy tiger, and he thought there was nothing better than that. He bought it, and the boy and his father played with the wooden tiger all day. The toy had tiny slivers all over it, suggesting that it was likely made by an inexperienced carpenter. The Maharaja’s right hand was punctured by one of these slivers while he was playing. He pulled it out, but his hand had already become infected. He underwent surgery with the help of three renowned doctors. They claimed that they had finished the procedure and exited the operating room. “The procedure went well. Maharaja has passed away.” The 100th tiger eventually killed the Maharaja in his manner. Tiger King received retaliation from the one-hundredth tiger.
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Textual questions and answers
1. Who is the Tiger King? Why does he get that name?
Answer: The Maharaja of Pratibandapuram is the Tiger King. His name comes from his sole mission in life, which was to kill a hundred tigers and disprove the forecast.
2. What will the Maharaja do to find the required number of tigers to kill?
Answer: The Maharaja insisted on staying in the forest until the tiger was found. His rage and obstinacy grew as the days passed, and many officers were fired. He threatened to double the land tax if the tiger was not found.
3. What will the Maharaja do to find the required number of tigers to kill?
Answer: The Maharaja chose to marry a princess from a state where tigers were plentiful.
4. How did the Maharaja prepare himself for the hundredth tiger which was supposed to decide his fate?
Answer: The Maharaja was adamant about not leaving the forest until the tiger was discovered. His rage and obstinacy grew as the days passed, and many officers lost their jobs. He even decided to double the land tax if the tiger was not found.
5. What will now happen to the astrologer? Do you think the prophecy was indisputably disproved?
Answer: The astrologer would not be hurt because the king did not live to order it. Furthermore, the prophecy could not be refuted because the hundredth tiger exacted his vengeance. The king did not even survive after allegedly killing a hundred tigers.
Additional/extra questions and answers/solutions
1. Explain how the story of ‘The Tiger King’ is about crime and punishment.
Answer: We are all aware that death is unavoidable once we are born. The Tiger King was well aware of it as well. He had been warned that he was in danger of being killed by a tiger. But arrogance got in the way, and he tried to defy death, proving the forecast wrong. The astrologer warned him not to kill a hundred tigers because the hundredth would be fatal. To refute this, the king continued to slaughter tigers. Hunting was forbidden to anyone else in his kingdom. He whipped out tigers from his forest and did the same to his father-in-law’s kingdom as well. One by one, the tigers died. In most places, the species was close to extinction. The king gave his son a wooden tiger on his son’s birthday, content and proud after killing a hundred tigers, though the last was killed by his minister. The inanimate tiger, as fate would have it, was the cause of his untimely death. He would have died anyway, but death came in the form of the creature he tormented the most as divine retribution.
2. Write briefly about who is Tiger King.
Answer: The Tiger King is the Maharaja of Pratibandapuram. He may be referred to as His Highness. General Jamedar, Major Khiledar, Sata Vyaghra Samhari, Maharajadhiraja Visva Bhuvana Samrat, Sir Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur, and others. Other titles are also associated with his name. He is, however, popularly known as the Tiger King.
3. What prediction did the astrologer make about the King’s death?
Answer: On his tenth day, an astrologer predicted that the child would grow up to be a warrior among warriors, a hero among heroes, and a champion among champions. At the Bull’s hour, the prince was born. The Bull and the Tiger are rivals. As a result, he would be held accountable for his death by the Tiger.
4. What was Maharaja’s reaction to the astrologer’s prophecy?
Answer: There were no restrictions on killing tigers in Pratibandapuram, which was densely forested. When the astrologer warned the King that the hundredth tiger he killed would put him in danger, he issued a proclamation that no one could hunt tigers in that kingdom except him. As a result, the Maharaja began his assassination spree.
5. Which incident once put the King’s throne in danger?
Answer: The King once put his kingdom on the line by denying a high-ranking British officer permission to hunt tigers in Pratibandapuram. The Maharaja would not even let him take a picture with a tiger that the king had killed.
21. Who were Virasami Naicker and Khader Main Saheb?
Answer: Khader Main Saheb and Virasami Naicker were two infamous cattle thieves both renowned for their capacity to consume the whole sheep.
22. What was the good news that finally reached the Tiger King?
Answer: The good news for the Tiger King was that sheep started to disappear from a hillside settlement on a regular basis after a while, and it was assumed that tigers were responsible. It indicated that the Tiger King had finally tracked down the 100th tiger that he had secretly wished to kill.
24. What did the Maharaja do to placate the British officer whose tiger hunts he had stopped?
Answer: He risked losing his entire kingdom by forbidding a senior British commander from hunting tigers in his realm. The Maharaja asked a renowned British jeweller in Calcutta to send some samples of pricey diamond rings in various styles after discussing the issue with his Dewan. 50 rings were sent. The Maharaja intended for the British officer’s wife to select one or two and return the rent, so he sent her all of them. However, she kept each one. Despite having to spend three lakh rupees for them, the Maharaja was still able to hold onto his throne.
25. What action did Dewan take regarding buying a tiger under the threat of losing his job?
Answer: For fear of losing his job, the dewan brought a tiger from Madras’ People’s Park and kept it hidden in his home. At midnight, he drove the tiger to the Maharaja’s hunting location in the forest and left it there. The same tiger wandered into the Maharaja’s presence the following day. In this way, the dewan was successful in obtaining the one-hundredth tiger for the Maharaja to slay.
26. What caused the Tiger King’s death in the end?
Answer: The Tiger King was unaware that he had missed his mark and had not actually dispatched the 100th tiger. But he thought he had just dispatched the one-hundredth tiger. His son’s third birthday occurred a few days after this occurrence. On his birthday, the Maharaja wanted to offer him a special gift. He spent a lot of time looking through the market before deciding that a wooden tiger in a toy store was the ideal present. The wooden tiger toy actually only cost two and a half annas, but the merchant demanded three hundred rupees, portraying the toy as an exceptional example of handiwork. On that particular day, the Maharaja’s right hand was pierced by a piece of the wooden tiger’s rough body when the father and son were playing with it. With his left hand, the Maharaja removed it while still playing with the prince. The infection began to spread the following day, and after four days, it turned into a suppurating sore that covered his entire arm. Three renowned doctors from Madras were summoned, but they were unable to rescue the monarch. The Tiger King eventually passed away, and as the astrologer had said, a tiger was to blame. The one-hundredth tiger finally got back to the Tiger King.
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