Short & Long Question Answers - The Tiger King

Short Question and Answers

Q1. What was the miracle that took place in the royal palace?

Q2. How was the Tiger King brought up?

Ans. As a child, the Tiger King was brought up by an English nanny, tutored in English by an Englishman and given the milk of an English cow. Like many other Indian princes of his time, he watched only English films.

Q3. What did the State astrologer say he would do 'if the hundredth tiger were also killed?

Ans. The State astrologer was so confident in his prediction that he declared he would cut off his ceremonial tuft, crop his hair short and become an insurance agent if the Maharaja managed to kill the hundredth tiger himself. He was convinced the Maharaja would die because of the hundredth tiger.

Q4. What did the high-ranking British officer wish to do? Was his wish fulfilled?

Ans. The high-ranking British officer wished to kill a tiger himself. When he was refused permission to hunt, he asked the Maharaja instead to allow him to be photographed alongside a tiger killed by the Maharaja. His wish, however, was never fulfilled.

Q5. How did the Maharaja manage to save his throne?

Ans. The Maharaja had offended a visiting senior British officer over the matter of tiger-hunting and thus risked losing his position. To placate the officer and protect his throne, the Maharaja and the Dewan sent valuable gifts-expensive diamond rings-to the officer's wife (the duraisani), hoping to smooth things over.

Q6. How did the 'duraisani' behave on receiving the gifts?

Ans. About fifty samples of diamond rings were sent to the duraisani with the expectation she would retain one or two and return the rest. Instead, she kept all of them and sent only a letter of thanks, showing greed and ingratitude.

Q7. Why did the Maharaja's tiger killing mission come to a sudden standstill?

Ans. The Maharaja's tiger-hunting continued until he had killed seventy tigers, but then it came to an abrupt halt because the tiger population in the forests of Pratibandapuram had become virtually extinct.

Q8. Why did the Maharaja suddenly decide to marry? Whom did he wish to marry?

Ans. The Maharaja decided to marry partly because he had reached marriageable age and partly because he wanted access to a neighbouring state with a large tiger population. He hoped that by marrying into that royal family he would be able to hunt the additional thirty tigers needed to reach the tally of one hundred.

Q9. Why did Maharaja order the dewan to double the tax?

Ans. The Maharaja ordered the Dewan to double the tax on the villagers who had reported a tiger in the forest because he was angry and frustrated that, despite their information, he had been unable to locate the beast. His irritation led him to punish them financially.

Q10. What did the Maharaja buy as a birthday gift for his son?

Ans. The Maharaja bought a wooden toy tiger as a special birthday present for his young son.

Long Answer Type Question

Q1. How did the Tiger King meet his end? What is ironic about his death?

Ans. The wooden toy tiger the Maharaja had given his son had been poorly carved by an unskilled carpenter. Its surface was rough and studded with tiny slivers of wood. One such sliver pierced the Maharaja's right hand. Although he removed the splinter, the wound became infected; within four days it developed into a suppurating sore that spread up his arm. The king died while surgeons were operating upon him.

The circumstances of his death are sharply ironic. The Maharaja had devoted himself to killing tigers to avoid the astrologer's prediction, and he believed that by slaying the hundredth tiger he had disproved the prophecy. He even ordered a grand procession and a tomb for the 'dead' tiger. In reality, the hundredth tiger had not been killed by him but by other hunters, and the death that befell him came not from a living tiger but from a wooden toy tiger - a tiny sliver of wood. Thus, while he thought he had escaped death by a tiger, death arrived precisely from something representing a tiger, which underlines the bitter irony.

Q2. How was the crown prince Jilani Jung Bahadur brought up? Why did he call the state astrologer? What did the astrologer say?

Ans. The crown prince Jilani Jung Bahadur was raised in a strongly Anglicised environment: he drank the milk of an English cow, was reared by an English nanny, received English tuition from an Englishman and watched only English films. After he killed his first tiger, he summoned the State astrologer to show him the trophy. The astrologer warned him that although he might kill ninety-nine tigers without harm, he must be extremely careful with the hundredth tiger. The astrologer had earlier prophesied that the prince would be a great warrior but also warned that, being born in the hour of the bull (an enemy of the tiger), his death would be linked to a tiger.

Q3. What was the vow of the Maharaja? How did he fulfil it, and what dangers did he face?

Ans. The Maharaja vowed to kill one hundred tigers before he would attend to other matters of state, believing that doing so would avert the astrologer's prediction about his death. He pursued this vow obsessively and managed to kill ninety-nine tigers. When he fired at what he believed to be the hundredth tiger, his bullet missed, but other hunters finished the animal off. In his hunts he faced genuine dangers: shots could miss, tigers could charge and he was sometimes forced to grapple with them using his bare hands. Despite these risks, he usually emerged victorious in the encounters he led.

Q4. The astrologer's prediction about the death of the Tiger King came to be true. Do you agree with this statement?

Ans. Yes, to a considerable extent the astrologer's prediction proved true. He had foretold that the Maharaja's death would be connected with the hundredth tiger. Although the Maharaja did not personally kill the hundredth living tiger, his death did come as a consequence of a tiger - a wooden toy tiger. A small splinter from that toy caused a fatal infection, so the prediction that a hundredth tiger would be responsible for his death was fulfilled in an unexpected and ironic manner.

Q5. The story is a satire on the conceit of those in power. How does the author employ the literary device of dramatic irony in the story?

Ans. The author uses satire to criticise the arrogance and misplaced priorities of those in authority. The Maharaja, who should have cared for his people and state affairs, becomes obsessed with proving the astrologer wrong by killing tigers. He abuses his power by banning others from hunting and by making extravagant public displays around his hunts. Dramatic irony appears throughout: readers can see the consequences of his single-minded pursuit long before the Maharaja realises them. For example, he believes he has conquered fate by killing the hundredth tiger, and he celebrates publicly, while the reader knows the animal was not actually killed by him and that danger still exists. The final irony - that he dies from a splinter in a wooden tiger - exposes his vanity and the futility of his efforts. Thus, irony and satire combine to reveal how the ruler's conceit leads to his downfall and to ridicule his misuse of power.