"Toomai of the Elephants". In The Jungle Book(1894), the full poem, with two additional twelve-line verses, follows the story (p. 244), as well as the verse within the text (p. 224).

It is collected in: See David Alan Richards p. 80, and Brian Mattinson's table for a musical settingby Dora Bright in 1903 with the title €œThe Song Toomai€™s Mother Sang€.

Theme

The great god Shiv gives all living creatures, kings, beggars, rich men, poor men, tigers, kites, wolves, their share of food and toil and fate. His wife, Parbati , thinking to jest with him, hides a little grasshopper in her breast. But when she plucks it forth, it is eating a leaf. All-seeing, Shix has given it its portion.


Notes on the Text


[Title]

Shiv(The spelling varies) A Hindu deity appearing in many guises, here in his reproductive or renovating capacity; €œThe Benevolent€ is one of his many names. See our notes to €œThe Bridge-Builders"(The Day€™s Work).Also Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, under €˜Siva€™, and Hinduism, by K. M. Sen, Pelican 1962.

Grasshopperan insect of the Order Orthoptera, which includes locusts and crickets.

[Verse 1]

GuddeeThrone. More correctly gaddi.

MahadeoMaha= 'great', deo= 'god'. One of the many names of €œLord of the Dance€, Shiv, Shiva, or Siva.

Thornthe Indian babul, also called kikar. The thorny mimosa of the Acacia group of shrubs and trees. It has both leaves and thorns. The thorns are large, ivory-white, sharp needle-like spikes.

fodder for the kinehay and grass for the cattle

[Verse 2]

Wheatgrain of the genus Triticumwhich produces corn to be ground into flour for bread, cakes etc.

Milletthe general name for many cereal grasses including Panecum miliaceum, grown for food. In India and elsewhere.

carrionthe dead and putrid flesh of any animal, eaten with relish by many scavenging birds, like vultures, kites and crows.

Kitein this context one of several birds of prey, family Accipitridae. A kite called Chil appears in The Jungle Book€“ sometimes also known as Rann.

ParbatiThe wife of Siva, more correctly Parvati.

The PreserverSiva. An inaccuracy on Kipling€™s part, though of little consequence as Hinduism is protean, taking many forms. Strictly speaking the Hindu Trinity consists of Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Preserver) and Siva (Destroyer, as well as Re-creator.)

[Verse 3]

dolein this context a charitable allowance of money or food etc. Is this Kipling€™s clever choice of word? Worship of Shiva is accompanied by bell-ringing and the beating of a drum, the Indian dhole.


[J McG./S.K.]

ŠJohn McGivering and Sharad Keskar 2011 All rights reserved


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version for printing


the poem
"Shiv and the
Grasshopper"


(notes by John McGivering
and Sharad Keskar)
[November 11th 2011]

Publication history

ORG (vol. 8 p. 5347) lists this poem as Verse No. 593, and records first publication in St. Nicholas Magazine for December 1893, where the first eight-line verse is to be found within the story