Shere Khan

Uncommon card · No. 92171

Shere Khan () is a fictional Bengal tiger featured in the Mowgli stories of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. He is often portrayed as the main antagonist in the book's media adaptations, itself an exaggeration of his role in the original stories, in which he only appears a third of the time. Shere Khan is named after Afghan Emperor Sher Shah Suri. Khan is a title of distinction among the Turco-Mongol peoples, usually meaning chief or ruler. According to The Kipling Society, the name shows that Shere Khan "is the chief among tigers". The character was born with a birth defect, a crippled leg, so his mother gave him the derisive nickname "Lungri" ("The Lame One"). Despite this condition, Shere Khan is prideful and regards himself as the "rightful" lord of the jungle.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Maurice de Becque, Public domain