The Monkey King

by Shobha Vishwanath and illustrated by Uma Krishnaswamy

“The Monkey King” by Shobha Vishwanath and illustrated by Uma Krishnaswamy. Published by Karadi Tales. An adaptation of a timeless Jataka tale from the life of Bodhisattva.

There stood a beautiful Mango tree on the banks of the mighty Ganga river in the wilderness of the forest. The tree was home to a tribe of monkeys whose leader Kapi was loved and respected by all. He was kind and generous. He had one rule for everyone which had to be followed at any cost. No fruit from the tree should fall into the river. As the river ran through the kingdom of Benares, people would come searching for more if they found any mangoes. Then their home would be gone forever. The loyal monkeys followed this rule. 

But Kapi had one enemy called Korung who was very selfish and jealous. He desired to become the king of the monkeys in place of Kapi. One day Korung saw a ripe mango fall into the river and float away towards the city of Benares. He didn’t do anything about it.

The fishermen caught the mango in their nets the next morning They didn’t know what it was but it looked magnificent and smelled heavenly. They felt it was perfect for their king and took it to the palace. The King just loved it and decided to go with his soldiers in search of the tree from which it had come. What happens next? Does the King find the tree? What happens to the monkeys? Will Kapi be able to protect his subjects? Will they be able to continue staying on the mango tree? Does Korung succeed in becoming the King of the monkeys? This is what the story is about. The stunning illustrations make the story come to life.

My seven year old has loved this book since we bought it last year. He had seen a lovely performance of this story when he was three at a session which was part of the Neralu tree festival in Bengaluru. He used this story to come up with a smaller one as to how humans started eating mangoes for his integral project on mango tree in school last year. Adding a picture of the chart he made for presenting the project. The book is apt for children aged 6+.

Where to buy from?

The publishers Karadi Tales here.

This story was narrated beautifully last year by 3 Brothers & A Violin as part of “Katha with Karadi” series.