During the Kumbh Mela festival, which recurs every twelve years at the confluence of the three rivers Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati in Allahabad, a vast crowd gathers for a holy bath in the rivers. Amidst that ocean of humanity also arrives a hermit with his companion, a tiger. He does not hold the animal on a leash since he claims they were brothers in previous lives. The tiger freely moves about without hurting or scaring anyone.
Such a combination seemed incredible when I read reports of it and saw the photographs. But as I got used to the idea, I began to speculate on its possibilities for a novel. Also I came across a few other instances of enduring friendship between tigers and human beings. This theme was on my mind in a general way, but it narrowed down to a specific issue about a year ago, when I came upon a bookmark, a four-inch-long strip of cardboard with the picture of a young tiger pleading, "I'd love to get into a good book." That sounded like a hint from the muses (if they care for novelists too). I said to the young tiger, "Surely you will get into my book, but the goodness of the book itself I can't guarantee." It also occurred to me that with a few exceptions here and there, humans have monopolized the attention of fiction writers. Man in his smugness never imagines for a moment that other creatures may also possess ego, values, outlook, and the ability to communicate, though they may be incapable of audible speech. Man assumes he is all-important, that all else in creation exists only for his sport, amusement, comfort, or nourishment. Valmiki, the greatest of poets, who composed the Ramayana, cried out when he noticed the agony of a bird whose mate was shot down by a hunter, "Man, the destroyer, who'll not let innocent creatures mate in peace. ." I wished to examine what the result would be if I made a tiger the central character in a novel.
"Why tiger? Why not a mouse?" asked a smart journalist who had come to interview me, when I mentioned the subject of my novel. I could only reply, "So that the chief character may not be trampled upon or lost sight of in a hole."
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