Joseph Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865 - January 18, 1936) was a British author and poet, born in India. He is best known for the book of children's talesThe Jungle Book (1894), the Indian spy novel Kim (1901), the poems "Gunga Din"(1892), and "If-" (1895), as well as many of his short stories.The height of Kipling's popularity was the first decade of the 20th century: in 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and still remains its youngest-ever recipient, as well as the first English language writer to receive the prize.In his own lifetime he was primarily regarded as a poet, and was offered a knighthood and the post of British poet laureate, though he turned them both down

The Jungle Book - is a collection of stories by English Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–1894. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived in Vermont.

The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are fables, using animals in ananthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle.“ Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics and society of the time.

•Mowgli (feral child)•Jungle characters•Akela# (Indian Wolf), "alone" in Hindi; leader of the wolf pack.•Raksha# (Indian Wolf), "protection" in Hindi; Mowgli's adoptive mother. The name supposedly means "the demon" in the wolves' language, and refers to her ferocity•Father Wolf (Indian Wolf); Raksha's mate and Mowgli's adoptive father. The 1967 film names him "Rama," meaning "pleasant, supreme."•Baloo# (Sloth Bear); Mowgli's best friend. In Kipling's book, he is described as a sleepy old sloth bear, who teaches Mowgli the law of the jungle. Bhaaloo (Devanagari: भा�लू�) is "bear" in Hindi.•Bagheera# (melanistic leopard known as a black panther); from baagh (Devanagari: बा�घ) in Sanskrit or Hindi meaning "tiger"•Bandar-log, the Monkeys. Notorious because "they have no king" or any effective leadership at all. They kidnap the very young Mowgli, who is rescued by Bagheera, Baloo and Kaa.•Ko (Crow)•Kaa (Indian python)

•Hathi (Indian Elephant); Haathee (Devanagari: हा�थी) meaning "elephant" in Hindi•Hathi's sons (elephants)•Tabaqui (Golden jackal); he feeds on scraps from either Shere Khan or the wolves of the Seeonee Pack. In some adaptions, he is a hyena.•Mang (bat)•Shere Khan# (Bengal Tiger); sher (Hindi: शे�र, pronounced [ˈʃeːr]) is a word for "lion" in Hindi[1]•Rama (water buffalo)•Mysa (water buffalo)•Chil (in earlier editions called Rann) (kite); "cheel" means kite in Hindi•Ikki (in earlier editions called Sahi < Hindi [ Devanagari ]: सा�हा) (porcupine)•Tha (Elephant) The first of the elephants according to Hathi•Thuu (aka White Hood) (Cobra) A blind albino Cobra. Mowgli gives him the derisory epithet "Thuu" (allegedly meaning "it has dried" referring to the poison in Thuu's fangs) upon discovering that the supposedly deadly cobra's fangs are in fact withered and dried up from age and disuse.

•Grey Brother (Indian Wolf); the oldest of Father Wolf and Raksha's cubs•Phaona (Indian Wolf) Fao's son•The Dholes•Oo (Turtle)•Jacala (Crocodile). In Red Dog it is stated that Mowgli broke a knife on Jacala's back during a protracted fight with him.•Mor (Peacock)•Won-Tolla (Indian Wolf) An outlier who warns Mowgli's tribe of the Dhole•Chikai (Rat)•Phao (Wolf) Son of Phaona, leader of The Free People•Ferao (Woodpecker)

Human characters:•Messua; wife of the richest man of the human village, who decides to adopt the wild Mowgli, believing (probably mistakenly) that he is their long-lost son Nathoo•Messua's husband; the richest man of the village; his name is not given

•Nathoo; the long-lost son of Messua and her husband, who has been snatched by a tiger (arguably, Shere Khan)•Buldeo (village hunter) from the Hindi or Sanskrit Baladeva, which means "powerful lord"; the elderly (or at least middle-aged) chief hunter of Messua's village. Buldeo is boastful and arrogant, and is furious when Mowgli, who knows what the jungle is really like, contradicts some of Buldeo's more fanciful stories about the jungle.•Kamya: one of the village boys who herd buffalo along with Mowgli. In contrast to Messua's husband, he has a name but no description.