English Workbook Class 12 Solutions: The tiger king

 The tiger king 

(workbook solution)

Short Answer Type Questions:

Mark - 2 

1. Who became famous as the 'Tiger king' and why?

answer: The Maharaja  of Pratibandapuram was called the Tiger King. At the time of his birth the astrologers declared that the prince would have to die one day.

2. Who is the writer of the story? where is the story set?

Answer: The writer of the story The tiger king is Kalki krishnamurthy.

The story ‘The Tiger King’ is a satire on those in power. Most of the time the rulers are not interested in serving the people or work for the welfare of the public; instead, they spend their time in foolish pursuits. This is a story about the transience of life. The story is about crime and punishment. Kalki has used humour, irony and conversational narrative style to bring out the theme.

3. what did the chief astrologer predict at the time of the prince's birth?

Answer:  The astrologers predicted that the newly born prince will grow up to become the hero of heroes, brave of the bravest and a great warrior. He also predicted that the baby was born in the hour of the bull. 

4. What miracle took place when the tiger king was born?

Answer:  When the Tiger king was only ten days old, royal astrologers predicted that one day he would have to die. At this, the infant asked them to tell the manner of his death. All were surprised to hear the infant speaking so clearly. This was a miracle.

5.What measures did the tiger king take to prevent his death when he grew up?

Answer: The story mocks the wilfulness and arrogance of those in power. The writer of the story takes us to the days when king rule. Also, they lived under the thumb rule of the British. In addition, the ruler was uninterested in serving the people instead they spent their time on foolish pursuits. They bent law to suit their interest. Besides, the Maharaja of Pratibandapuram tries to disprove his fate that the chief astrologer predicted that a tiger will kill him. So, he tries to belie the prediction and hunted down 99 tigers successfully. But the 100 tigers although not made of flesh and blood take his life. As one of the silvers of woodcut his right hand and because of infection, he dies.

6.what is the real name of the tiger king? At what age did he become the king?

Answer: Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur is the real name of the tiger king.

The prince became king at the age of twenty and considering killing a cow in self defense to be lawful, went on a tiger killing spree.

7. Why did the tiger king ban tiger haunting in his kingdom?

Answer: Maharaja banned the tiger hunting in the state. Because he wanted to prove the predictions of state astrologer wrong that he would be killed by the hundredth tiger. That is why he put a ban on the hunting of tigers on all the tiger-rich forest of Pratibandapuram.

8.What problems did the king face after killing certain number of tigers?

Answer: When the Maharaja killed seventy tigers, he fell short of the tigers. There was no tiger left in his kingdom. In order to come up from this problem, the King married the princess of the kingdom in which there were many tigers.

9.What next step did he take to fulfil his promise?

Answers: When the Maharaja killed seventy tigers, he fell short of the tigers. There was no tiger left in his kingdom. In order to come up from this problem, the King married the princess of the kingdom in which there were many tigers.

10. What did the Astrologer promise to do if his prediction proved wrong?

Answer: The chief astrologer had told the King that his death would come from a tiger, and he should be especially wary of the hundredth tiger. So to prove the astrologer wrong, the King decided to kill a hundred tigers. He vowed that he would. Attend to all other matters only after killing one hundred tigers.

11. Why was the king in danger of losing his kingdom?

Answer: The Tiger King was in danger of losing his kingdom when he annoyed a senior British Officer by refusing him permission to not only hunt a tiger in Pratibandapuram but also rejected the officer's request of being photographed with a tiger killed by him (the Maharaja).

12. How did the king manage to save his kingdom?

Answer:  King was in danger of losing his kingdom as he denied the permission of tiger hunting by a high ranking british officer. But he saved his kingdom by sending expensive rings worth 3 lakh rupees to britisher's wife.

13. why did the king suddenly decide to get married?
Answer: The Maharaja had killed seventy tigers and thus the tiger population became extinct in the forests of his kingdom. It was then that he decided to get married to a girl in a royal family of a state which had a large tiger population.

14. What strange conditions did the king give for his marriage?

Answer: The Maharaja married a girl from a state which possessed a large number of tigers. Each time he visited his father-in-law, he killed five or six tigers. In this manner he raised the tally of tigers killed by him from seventy to ninety-nine.

15. How many tigers did the king kill each time during his visit to his father-in-law?

Answer: The dewan followed his orders. He found the right girl from a state which possessed a large number of tigers. Maharaja Jung Jung Bahadur killed five or six tigers each time he visited his father-in-law. In this manner, ninety-nine tiger skins adorned the walls of the reception hall in the Pratibandapuram palace.

16. How many tigers skin adorned the walls of the Pratibandapuram palace?

Answer: Maharaja Jung Jung Bahadur killed five or six tigers each time he visited his father-in-law. In this manner, ninety-nine tiger skins adorned the walls of the reception hall in the Pratibandapuram palace.

17. How did the Dewan manage to arrange the hundredth tiger for the Maharaja ?

Answer: The Dewan had brought a tiger from the People's Park in Madras and kept it hidden in his house. When the Maharaja threatened him with dire consequences he understood that the only way to save himself was to 'plant' a tiger for the kill. So he and his aged wife dragged the tiger to the forest where the king was hunting.

18. Did the king really kill the hundredth tiger? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer: The Tiger King actually did not shoot the hundredth tiger. The tiger being a weak one fainted from the shock of a bullet whizzing past him and the ignorant king celebrated his achievement. Later when the hunters took a closer look at the tiger it woke up as if from a deep slumber.

19. why did one of the hunters shoot the hundredth tiger?

Answer: maharaja's hunter were scared that if they they told the maharaja that that the tiger is still alive and not got hit by the bullet .they might be dead or would be fired from their post.

20. What gift did the king bring for his son in his third birthday?

Answer: The astrologer's prophecy was proved when the king was certainly killed by the hundredth tiger which was wooden. The king bought a wooden tiger to gift his son.

21. How did the tiger king finally die?

Answer: The king was killed by a wooden toy tiger. It is very much ironical that he had killed ninety nine tigers, but one toy tiger had taken revenge upon the king. One of silvers of wood pierced the right hand of the king and caused infection, which ultimately brought his death.

Long Answer Type Questions

1. What Impressions do you get of the "tiger king" from the story " The tiger king" by Kalki?

or

Sketch  the character of the 'tiger king'.

Answer: The Maharaja of Pratibandapuram, Sir Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur, had many titles and sub-names. However, he was popular as the Tiger King. The chief astrologer foretold that his death would come from a tiger.

Crown Prince Jung Jung Bahadur grew taller and stronger each day. An English governess took care of him and he was tutored in English by an Englishman. When he was twenty he took the reign in his hands.

The Maharaja continued his campaign of tiger hunting with rare single-mindedness. Within ten years he killed seventy tigers. He wanted to marry a girl of a state which had a large tiger population so that he was able to kill 99 tigers in all.

The Tiger King could pay any price to maintain his kingdom. He also gave a bribe worth three lakh rupees to a high-ranking British official to retain his kingdom.

The Maharaja knew how to take work from his minions. He used the dewan to find out the suitable girl for his marriage. He could be short tempered and doubled the tax on the people. He also threatened the dewan that he would dismiss him from his service. Ironically, the King met his death by a wooden tiger. At last, the hundredth tiger took revenge upon him.

 

2. What prediction was made by the astrologers about the king's death? Describe the efforts made by the tiger king to subvert the prediction.

or

Which incident made the tiger king resolute to kill hundred tigers?

Answer: The chief astrologer had told the King that his death would come from a tiger and he should be specially wary of the hundredth tiger. So to prove the astrologer wrong the King decided to kill a hundred tigers.

3. Do you justify the act of killing innocent tigers for the fear of a mere prediction ? Give your reasons?

Ansawer: The Maharaja banned tiger hunting in the state by anyone else except himself because he had to kill a hundred tigers so that he could prove the astrologer's prediction wrong. He had a limited population of tigers in his kingdom so he did not want anyone else to hunt or kill tigers.

4. Why was the tiger king king's  encounter with the British official?

Answers: When the British officer was denied permission to hunt a tiger, his secretary sent a message to the Maharaja that the Maharaja himself could kill the tiger and then allow his office to get photographed holding the gun over the dead tiger. But the Maharaja did not agree to his request because he felt doing so would mean other officers would come with similar demands.

5. what strange conditions were laid down by the tiger king for his marriage and why? 

Answer: Within ten years the Maharaja was able to kill seventy tigers. Then the tiger population became extinct in the forests of Pratibandapuram. One day the Maharaja sent for the dewan and asked him if he was aware of the fact that thirty tigers still remained to be shot down by his gun. The dewan shuddered with fear. The Maharaja told him that he had decided to get married. He asked the dewan to draw up statistics of tiger populations in different native states. Then he was to investigate if there was a girl he could marry in the royal family of a state with a large tiger population. This plan was put into practice. The dewan found the right girl from a state which possessed a large number of tigers. The Maharaja killed five or six tigers each time he visited his father-in-law. Thus, he was able to find the required number of tigers to kill. He shot ninety-nine tigers.

6. Bring out the irony as revealed by the writer in the story? 

Answer: ‘The Tiger King’ is replete with irony that reveals the follies of autocratic and wilful rulers who flout all laws and bend them to suit their selfish interests. The dramatic irony in the story is sharp when the Tiger King alone is unaware that his bullet had not killed the hundredth tiger. The other characters and the readers anticipate his doom as he celebrates his triumph over his destiny. We realize how misplaced the King’s pride at killing the first tiger was. The astrologers had prophesied, “You may kill ninety nine tigers like this, but your death will be brought on by the hundredth tiger.” The King wanted to prove the astrologer wrong and to save his life. Ironically, to avert death he actually invites it. The lofty titles used to introduce the Tiger King, suggesting an invincible ferocity are indeed ironic for he is finally killed by a cheap, crudely made wooden toy tiger which became the tool of Nature’s revenge. He had killed a hundred tigers in vain and must be punished for it. Irony is indeed sharp when the surgeons announce the operation successful and declare the king dead.

7. Justify the title of the story " the tiger king".

Answer: “The Tiger King” is a very appropriate title for the story for several reasons. First of all, the king is crazy about tiger hunting so much that he marries a princess whose father’s kingdom has a sizeable tiger population. He kills one hundred tigers just to fulfil his vow. Secondly, the king with all his frenzy, anger and ruthlessness is as ferocious as a tiger. Thirdly, he dies of a silver prick received from a wooden toy tiger. Finally, the prediction that a tiger would cause the king’s death also comes true. Since the story revolves round the king and the hundred tigers that he kills, it could not be better titled than “The Tiger King”.

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