The Blue Jackal

Also known as Ranga Siyar

• 4 minute read
• Ages 6-10
• Panchatantra Stories

A hungry jackal named Chandarava lived at the edge of a forest, close to a village. For many days he had found nothing to eat. His ribs showed through his skin, and his legs shook when he walked.

One evening the hunger grew too sharp to bear. Chandarava crept into the village, hoping to find scraps behind the houses.

The chase through the village

The village dogs smelled him at once. They came barking from every lane, a whole pack of them, snapping at his tail. Chandarava ran. He ran past the well, past the temple, past the last house, and dived through an open doorway into a washerman's yard.

In the middle of the yard stood a great vat of blue dye. Chandarava could not stop in time. He tumbled straight into it.

When he climbed out, dripping and shivering, the dogs had gone. But the jackal had changed. From nose to tail he was a deep, shining blue, a colour no animal in the world had ever worn.

The animals bow down

Chandarava slipped back into the forest at dawn. The first creature to see him was a rabbit, who froze, stared, and bolted. Then a deer saw him and ran. Then a wild boar, then a monkey, then a bear.

Soon every animal in the forest was hiding behind a tree, peeping out at the strange blue beast.

Even the lion came to look. Even the tiger.

The jackal understood in a moment what was happening. Nobody knew what he was. So he lifted his head and spoke in a grand voice.

"Do not be afraid," he said. "I have been sent down by the gods themselves. They looked at this forest and saw that it had no king. So they made me from the colour of the sky and sent me to rule over you. My name is Kakudruma, Lord of All Beasts."

The animals looked at one another. He was certainly blue. He was certainly like nothing they had seen. One by one, they bowed.

The false king

Chandarava ruled well, in his way. He made the lion his minister and the tiger his guard. He made the elephant carry him and the monkeys fan him with leaves. He ate the best of every hunt and slept in the coolest shade.

But he did one thing that a wise animal would not have done. He drove all the other jackals out of the forest, every last one, because he was afraid they would recognise him.

Months passed. Chandarava grew fat and comfortable, and he began to forget he had ever been hungry.

The howl

Then came a night when the moon was very full.

Far away, beyond the trees, a pack of jackals lifted their heads and began to howl, the way jackals do on such nights. The sound came drifting through the forest, thin and high and familiar.

Chandarava heard it. And something in him that was older than his blue coat woke up. Before he could stop himself, before he had even decided to, he threw back his head and howled with them.

The lion heard. The tiger heard. Every animal in the forest heard.

They looked at their blue king, howling in the moonlight, and they knew exactly what he was.

The lion sprang first.