Raksha (Jungle Books) (original) (raw)

Raksha the Demon (or Mother Wolf as initially named) is a fictional character featured in Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories, collected in The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book. She is a female wolf, member of an Indian pack, who while suckling her own cubs decides also to adopt a human "cub" that her mate Father Wolf has found wandering in the jungle, naming him "Mowgli" (wolfish for "Frog") because of his hairlessness.

Defying the tiger Shere Khan who is determined to eat the man-cub, she reveals that her real name is Raksha the Demon because of her ferocity as a fighter, and she will fight to the death for any of her cubs, natural or adopted.

Raksha does not play a large role in the Mowgli stories, but occasionally offers her adopted son moral support.

She and her mate die when Mowgli is about 14 and he seals their cave den with a boulder and sings their death-song.