The Tiger King by Kalki
Quick answer: The Tiger King by Kalki, CBSE Class 12 Vistas chapter 2: the prophecy, the hundred tigers, the wooden toy tiger, satire on power, characters, themes and exam answers.
A ten-day-old prince speaks from his cradle to ask the astrologers how he will die, and is told that a tiger will kill him; he replies that tigers should beware.
Kalki, the pen name of the Tamil writer R. Krishnamurthy (1899 to 1954), wrote this satire; it is chapter 2 of Class 12 Vistas.
The story in brief
The Maharaja of Pratibandapuram, Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur, is warned that the hundredth tiger will be the danger. He bans tiger hunting for everyone but himself and kills seventy in ten years, until his state runs out. He refuses a British officer a hunt and soothes him with fifty diamond rings for the officer's wife, costing three lakh rupees. He marries a princess from a state rich in tigers and shoots several on each visit until he reaches ninety-nine.
The hundredth cannot be found. The Dewan, threatened, smuggles in an old, weak tiger from the People's Park in Madras. The king fires and the tiger collapses, but the bullet has missed; the animal fainted. Hunters kill it quietly and the king celebrates. For his son's third birthday he buys a cheap wooden tiger whose rough surface drives a sliver into his hand. The wound turns septic, three surgeons operate, and the king dies. The hundredth tiger has its revenge.
The people in it
A king and the people who feed his obsession.
Themes and meaning
Exam readings include the arrogance of power, the futility of defying fate, and the satire of rulers who serve their own whims. The sharper point is the wooden tiger: the story mocks the king's literalism, since he guards against real tigers and dies of a badly carved one.
The craft: a prophecy as a countdown
The number gives the story its shape. Every tiger is a tick toward one hundred, and the reader knows the count better than the king. The turn is the fainting tiger, where the count becomes a lie; the wooden toy delivers the truth. Writers can steal the countdown structure and the trick of fulfilling a prophecy through its most trivial possible reading.
For the exam
Quick material for the Class 12 exam.
What writers can take from this
- Track the numbers in your answer: seventy tigers, fifty rings, three lakh, ninety-nine, one hundred.
- State clearly that the hundredth tiger was not killed by the king; the missed shot is the plot's hinge.
- Name the satire's targets: royal vanity, bribery, and officials who lie to survive.
- Writers, use a countdown to shape a story and let the reader keep score.
- Fulfil your prophecy through its most trivial reading; the wooden tiger is the model.
Try it yourself
Write a satirical story about a powerful person who spends their life defeating a prophecy by the most literal means, and dies of the prophecy's most trivial possible form. Keep a visible count that the reader tracks better than the character.
Questions
What is the theme of The Tiger King?
The story satirises the arrogance of rulers who bend a state to their private obsessions and shows the futility of trying to cheat fate. The Maharaja kills tigers to defeat a prophecy and dies of a wooden toy tiger's sliver.
How does the Tiger King die?
He buys a cheap wooden tiger for his son's third birthday; a sliver from its rough surface pierces his hand, the wound turns septic, and he dies despite an operation by three surgeons.
Why did the Maharaja marry a princess from another state?
His own state had run out of tigers after he killed seventy. He chose a bride from a state with a large tiger population so he could hunt there on visits and reach his hundred.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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