The Blue Jackal

The Blue Jackal is a story known throughout the Indian sub-continent.

The earliest reference to the Blue Jackal can be found in Panchatantra, a collection of stories which depict animals in human situations (see anthropomorphism, Talking animals in fiction). In each of the stories every animal has a "personality" and each story ends in a moral.

The story of the Blue Jackal known through oral transmission doesn't vary much from one part of India to another. Although the creature is known variously as Chandru, Neelaakanth or Neela Gidhar (literally, Blue Jackal).

The most common version is told like this:

The jackal continued into the jungle and saw the lion, King of the Jungle. The Lion asked him who he was and the jackal seeing that he had now turned blue declared himself as Chandru - protector of all the animals in the jungle. Chandru told the lion that he would only continue to protect the jungle if all the animals would give him food and shelter.

Soon Chandru was sought for advice from animals from other jungles and animals sat at his feet and brought him the best of food. But as happens every year in India, the Monsoon came, and slowly but surely, the blue dye had run off Chandru's coat and he was just a mangy jackal again. The animals realised this and chased the jackal far into the jungle, where he was never seen again.

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