My interest in Corbett books stems from a deep love for the natural world of flora and fauna and my craving to know more about wildlife and nature. ’Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon’ is one of the three classics by Colonel Corbett on his encounters with man-eating tigers and leopards in the Kumaon Hills. The other two classics are ’Man Eaters of Kumaon’ and the all-time favorite ’The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag’.
’Temple Tiger And More Man-Eaters Of Kumaon’ consists of a collection of five thrilling accounts of Corbett’s shikar experiences , the very first one on ’Temple Tiger’ being the most fascinating of them all. Jim Corbett was hunting for the Panar man-eating leopard when he heard about the Temple Tiger. The priest of the Dabidhura Temple challenged him on bagging this animal which was believed to be blessed with the protection of the Gods of the Hills. Corbett tried several attempts and each time the hero of this piece, the Temple Tiger, frustrated him with its amazing wits. In his final attempt which too resulted in a failure, Corbett observed the Temple Tiger almost purring with delight at being the smarter one in all of their duets, which led Corbett to wonder whether tigers too, like monkeys, have a sense of humor. After this Corbett gave up further attempts to bag this ’blessed’ tiger and no one else, to his knowledge, had been able to do so. So he guessed that perhaps this ’old warrior’ just had to be left to fade away with time.
Besides this fascinating tale of the Temple Tiger, Corbett recounts four classic stories of skill and endurance in tracking and hunting man-eaters, the most absorbing one being ’The Talla Des Man-Eater’. During the hunting of this man-eating tigress with two cubs, Jim Corbett’s hearing was impaired and in spite of this disability he sometimes tracked the man-eater on foot even at night ! It adds a special thrill to the story and Corbett himself admits that the credibility of this account is questionable unless the reader goes through his classic ’Jungle Lore’ where he narrates the lessons he learnt by living in close association with the jungle from his childhood. The tracking of the Panar man-eater and the night vigil on a goat bait which ultimately resulted in bagging the notorious leopard are some of the other thrills that the book has to offer.
Like the rest of the Corbett classics, this book is not just about hunting man-eaters. Corbett relives his encounters with deep appreciation of the mountains, wildlife and the innocently superstitious and simple hill folk who forms an integral part of the nature. At the same time he brings out an aura of mysticism, especially in his account of the Talla Des man-eater where he makes reference to mysterious lights he saw in the jungle on the other side of the mountain river where he and his men camped for the first night of their adventure. Corbett was not able to find some convincing explanation for those lights.He learnt from the local myth that a sadhu had angered the reigning Goddess of the Mountains by climbing the ’forbidden heights’ of the sacred Purnagiri shrines and the Goddess in fury had flung him down, ever since then that sadhu, deep in the night, offers ’puja’ to the Goddess by setting up those lights. Corbett does not challenge this myth. He leaves the reader steeped in sheer mysticism when he says that many strange things do actually happen on the far side of that mountain river which are beyond the limits of the credibility of the rest of the world. The Indian Himalaya does have a mystic magic about it and Corbett strews that magic with his master touches! On his way to the Talla Des man-eater country, Corbett provides a vivid description of the picturesque mountains, valley, the woods in full April bloom and the colorful birds and animals. The danger of an ambush from a hungry man-eater could not deter him from enjoying the beauty of nature along his way.
In the epilogue Corbett gives a detailed guide to those who want to go trekking in his favorite Kumaon hills and at the same time introduces the readers to the various people from the villages who assisted him in the hunt for man-eaters. Corbett says that by the time the book is written and published some of those people may have passed away but he believes that many of them will be still there and will surely not forget those days and nights he spent with them. There seems to be an unmistakable touch of nostalgia and the reader can get a feel of how much the people and the place meant to him !