Mowgli

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Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Infobox character Mowgli (Template:IPAc-en) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Mowgli stories featured among Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book stories. He is a feral boy from the Pench area in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India, who originally appeared in Kipling's short story "In the Rukh" (collected in Many Inventions, 1893) and then became the most prominent character in the collections The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book (1894–1895), which also featured stories about other (on the basis of Marwar king Rao Sihaji) characters.<ref name= Sale> Template:Cite book </ref>

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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Part of Kipling's inspiration for the story of Mowgli is believed to have been William Henry Sleeman's account of six cases in India in which wild children had been raised by wolves.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> That account was first published in the first volume of Sleeman's Journey Through the Kingdom of Oude in 1848-1850 (1858)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and reprinted in 1852 as An Account of Wolves Nurturing Children in Their Dens, by an Indian Official and in The Zoologist (1888 12 (135): 87-98).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> One most notable feral child was found in the wolf's den at the Bulandshahr district in 1867 and subsequently brought to the Sikandra orphanage at Agra, where he was given the name Dina Sanichar.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Kipling's Mowgli stories

The Mowgli stories, including "In the Rukh", were first collected in chronological order in one volume as The 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 in All the Mowgli Stories (1933).

"In the Rukh" describes how Gisborne, an English forest ranger in the Pench area in Seoni at the time of the British 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 in The Jungle Book, which serves as a prequel to In the Rukh. Lost by his parents as a baby in the Indian jungle during a tiger attack, he is adopted by the Wolf Mother, Raksha and Father 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 painful thorns from the paws of his brothers is deeply appreciated as well.

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 at Oodeypore" from a cub, and thus knows the ways of man. Baloo the bear, 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 by Messua and her husband, whose own son Nathoo 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 herding buffalo 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 in The 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's Ankus"), not realising it is so valuable that men would kill to own it. With the aid of Kaa the python, he leads the wolves in a war against the dhole ("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 for The 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.<ref>The Jungle Play: UK paperback edition: Template:ISBN</ref>

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 of The Jungle Book, E. Nesbit's The Wouldbegoods (1899) included a passage in which some children act out a scene from the book.<ref name= Sale />Template:Rp

Mowgli has been cited as a major influence on Edgar Rice Burroughs who created and developed the character Tarzan. Mowgli was also an influence for a number of other "wild boy" characters.

Poul Anderson and Gordon 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 of The 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 collection Hokas Pokas! (1998) and is also available online.

Mowgli stories by other writers

The Third Jungle Book (1992) by Pamela Jekel is a collection of new Mowgli stories in a fairly accurate pastiche of Kipling's style.

Mowgli Learns to Swim (2000) by Ruth Hobart is a short children's book. When Mowgli meets Shere Khan the tiger, and isn't able to escape across the river on his own, he realises he has to learn to swim. With a little help from his friends Baloo, Bagheera, Hathi and the others, Mowgli finds that swimming isn't so difficult after all!<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Hunting Mowgli (2001) by Maxim Antinori is a very short novel which describes a fateful meeting between Mowgli and a human hunter.

The Jungle Book: Last of the Species (2013) by Mark L. Miller is a series of comic books that tells the story of a female Mowgli who unintentionally started a war between animal tribes after killing Shere Khan to avenge the fallen members of the wolf tribe.

Mowgli's Missionary (2017) by James Penrice is a novel which describes Mowgli's unusual encounter with a missionary.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Mi Hermano Lobo (My Brother Wolf) (2020) by Rafael Jaime is a short self published Mexican memoir written in Spanish in which the author details the deep emotional and physical impact Disney's animated version of Mowgli had during his lonely early childhood years as a symbolic "surrogate brother" figure and role model after learning about his real twin brother's death one day after their preterm birth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It also includes an exclusive interview with Diana Santos<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> who voiced the character in the Latin American Spanish dub of the 1967 film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> An audiobook version narrated by the author was released on YouTube in September 2021.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is similar in tone to the 2016 documentary Life, Animated.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Feral Dreams: Mowgli and his Mothers (2020) by Stephen Alter is a novel which describes Mowgli's harrowing process in trying to adapt to civilization and his coming of age within the walls of an orphanage located in the Gangetic Plain and run by Miss Cranston, an American missionary who christens him Daniel. At the same time, Mowgli recalls some of his adventures in the jungle prior to his abduction and desperately yearns for his freedom. In this story Mowgli is raised by an elephant matriarch.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Mowgli's Midnight Dance: A Jungle Book Adventure (2025) by Soumen Majumdar is a short children's novel. Step into a moonlit world where ancient forests whisper secrets and friendship knows no boundaries. Meet Mowgli, the brave jungle boy who dances between two worlds - raised by wolves, taught by a honey-loving bear, and protected by a wise panther. When the distant beat of village drums awakens something new in Mowgli's heart, he discovers that being different isn't a weakness - it's his greatest strength. Join him on an enchanting journey that proves the most powerful magic lies in having the courage to be yourself.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Mowgli and the Elephants' Secret (2025) by Sebastian Hale is a novel in which Mowgli has returned from the man-village, drawn back to the wilderness he calls home by a sense of duty and unyielding love for his animal family. Mowgli joins Hathi the wise elephant on a quest to locate a hidden lake rumored to possess life-giving waters—a sanctuary that could save them all. As the sun beats down mercilessly, the once-thriving jungle transforms into a parched expanse of cracked earth and wilting foliage. Mowgli, alongside his loyal companions—Baloo the amiable bear and Bagheera the sleek panther—must navigate the treacherous terrain of dense vines and ancient ruins swallowed by nature. The stakes are high, as the jungle’s most formidable predator, Shere Khan, prowls the shadows, sensing an opportunity amidst the chaos. Meanwhile, Kaa the cunning python lurks, weaving his own enigmatic plans that could either aid or betray Mowgli's mission. This tale weaves themes of stewardship and identity, challenging Mowgli to confront not only the encroaching threat of humans in their lust for expansion but also the deeper questions of belonging and responsibility. As he journeys through the emerald maze of the jungle, Mowgli learns that true courage lies not only in facing external dangers but also in grappling with the complexities of his own dual identity as both man and beast.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Law of the Jungle (2025) by Dick Ferguson is a LGBTQ romance novel. Dr. James Walker, a British-Indian botanist, arrives at the edge of the Seonee jungle seeking solace. Haunted by a broken heart and the stifling expectations of a world that never truly accepted him, he hopes to lose himself in the study of rare flora. But the jungle holds a deeper secret than any orchid. Local villagers speak in hushed tones of a ghost, a demon-man raised by wolves who stalks the deep groves. James, a man of science, dismisses it as superstition—until a fleeting glimpse of a powerful, copper-skinned figure moving with impossible grace through the canopy challenges everything he knows. That figure is Mowgli. Now a man in his prime, he is a perfect fusion of human and animal, a fierce protector bound by the ancient Law of the Jungle. Curious about the gentle, lonely man who smells of sadness and respect, Mowgli is drawn to him against the warnings of his panther guardian, Bagheera. When he saves James from a deadly tiger attack, a single, electrifying moment of eye contact sparks a connection that will change both their lives forever. Thus begins a delicate, silent dance of attraction and curiosity. Through offerings of fruit and feathers, and then halting, shared words, they build a bridge between their two worlds. James is captivated by Mowgli’s untamed beauty, his raw strength, and his profound connection to the wild. Mowgli is fascinated by James’s intelligence, his gentle hands, and the heartbreaking vulnerability he tries to hide. Their bond deepens under the sun-dappled canopy, culminating in a searingly intimate moment in a sacred jungle pool where barriers of clothing and convention are shed, and desire rises as fierce and natural as the jungle itself. But their forbidden love is tested at every turn. A jealous tiger returns to challenge Mowgli’s claim. Fearful villagers, armed with superstition and weapons, see their connection as an abomination. And from within, doubt threatens to tear them apart—Mowgli’s fear that James’s civilized world will inevitably reclaim him, and James’s terror that his own past failures at love will repeat themselves.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Films, television and radio

See also

References

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  • In the Rukh: Mowgli's first appearance from Kipling's Many Inventions
  • The Jungle Book Collection and Wiki: a website demonstrating the variety of merchandise related to the book and film versions of The Jungle Books, now accompanied by a Wiki on The Jungle Books and related subjects

Template:The Jungle Book Template:Authority control

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