Animalia Indica: The Finest Animal Stories in Indian Literature

by Sumana Roy (Editor)

Extraordinary stories for readers of every stripe. For centuries, the animal kingdom has captured the Indian imagination. And the land of the Panchatantra and the Jataka Tales continues to give rise to literary masterpieces. Some of the greatest Stories in modern Indian literature have animals as protagonists. In Animalia indica, Sumana Roy collects the best fiction written about animals from the past hundred years or so. Beginning with Premchand’s classic, ‘a tale of two bullocks’, and taking in its sweep some of the greatest pieces of literary fiction to have originated in India including ‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’ by Rudyard Kipling, ‘Mahesh’ by Sarah Chandra Chattopadhyay, ‘the mark of Vishnu’ by Khushwant Singh, ‘a horse and two goats’ by R. K. Narayan, ‘poonachi’ by Perumal Murugan, ‘the crocodile and the monkey’ by Vikram Seth, ‘the reflections of a hen in her last hour’ by Paul zacharia, ‘the last tiger’ by Ruskin Bond and ‘elephant at sea’ by Kanishk Tharoor, the stories in Animalia indica are guaranteed to dazzle the reader. These stories, centred on animals, and written over the last hundred years or so, are among the greatest feats of creation in the annals of modern Indian literature. Once read, their Flaming brilliance will ensure they are never forgotten. A tale of two bullocks by Premchand Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling Mahesh by Sarah Chandra Chattopadhyay jumman by Shripad Narayan Pendse shooting an elephant by George Orwell the flood by thakazhi sivasankara pillage the mark of Vishnu by Khushwant Singh bulbuls by Habib ka Mr an a horse and two goats by R. K. Narayan the copper-tailed skink by manjula Padmanabhan the last tiger by Ruskin Bond the owlet who craved the sun by Achyutananda path the crocodile and the monkey by Vikram Seth labour by R. R. Borade the reflections of a hen in her last hour by Paul zacharia the summer of the Crows by nilanjana Roy poonachi by Perumal Murugan a tale of animals by Moti Lal kemmu elephant at sea by Kanishk Tharoor snake by Sujatha and then laughed the hyena by Syed Muhammad Ashraf.

Genres: Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 20, 2019

About the author

Sumana Roy writes from Siliguri, a small town in sub-Himalayan Bengal.

Reviews

[Kate♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5stars

Read for my Post Colonialism class for grad school - focus on George Orwell's story which i freaking hated

[Fatima · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a kaleidoscope of most wonderful animal stories by Indian authors. Some of the stories are translated from languages such as Hindi, Odia, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Tamil etc, and each of them is a gem. I had read some of the stories earlier such as the one by Ruskin Bond, or an excerpt from Poonachi and Wildings or the stories Mahesh, The Crocodile and the Monkey, and Rikki Tikki Tavi, but it felt great to read them again. And, the new ones were equally amazing and I can't choose which one I liked the most. If you love a good anthology, regardless of whether you are an animal lover or not, I'd recommend you read this.

[Rutuja Ramteke · Rating 5 out of 5]

✨Animalia Indica✨
Extraordinary stories for readers of every stripe. For centuries, the animal kingdom has captured the Indian imagination. And the land of the Panchatantra and the Jataka Tales continues to give rise to literary masterpieces. Some of the greatest stories in modern Indian literature. .
✨Animalia Indica is one of the best compilation by Aleph so far. I mean, I never thought something like this can even exist, I loved it to the core. This book is a collection of true stories all about animals and not only animals but different kinds of animals and that too by our favourite authors so it's like cherry on the cake for animal lovers. In this one book you a variety of stories which are enough to make to happy, sad and feel more and more about those mute beings. These stories are extracts from various award winnings and best selling books by amazing authors we know, from them my favourites are Ruskin Bond, Premchand, Perumal, etc.
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This book is also an amazing piece of literature or you can also call it as a gift for all literature lovers and especially for those who love Indian literature over other. The language is amazing, thought it's different at every point. I think this was my favourite read of the month and I am gonna re read it for sure. Definitely recommended, it's a must read.
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Rating: 4.5🌟

[Sadiq Kazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful anthology of stories. Although some of them had been read as a part of novels or books earlier, some were sheer revelations of genius - especially noteworthy, A Tale of Two Bullocks by Premchand, and the best story of the lot was Jumman by Shripad Pendse.

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection with 21 stories some of them are translated with illustrations. Good collection.