Hathi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Colonel Hathi from the Disney version.
Colonel Hathi from the Disney version.

Colonal Hathi is a fictional animal character created by Rudyard Kipling for the Mowgli stories collected in The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895). Hathi is a male elephant that lives in the jungle. Kipling named him after hāthī (हाथी), the Hindi word for "elephant".

Hathi is head of the elephant troop. He is one of the oldest animals of the jungle and represents order and obedience. He is in charge of the compliance of the Law of the Jungle. In "How Fear Came" he tells the story of Tha (a kind of God of the animals).

Hathi inspects his troops
Hathi inspects his troops
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
  • In the story "Letting In the Jungle" Mowgli reveals that Hathi once destroyed a human village in revenge for being captured, and persuades Hathi and his sons to do the same to Buldeo's village as punishment for threatening Messua with execution.
  • In the Disney film, he prefers to be called Colonel Hathi and he leads his wife, Winifred Hathi, and his sons, Hathi Junior and 5 older ones, in a marching patrol.

[edit] Other Uses

  • Like all of the main Jungle Book Characters, Hathi is used as a name for an adult leader in many Cub Scout Packs.
  • In the technology world, Hathi is the largest, baddest elephant in the crowd that Chi Chis everywhere.
In other languages