When I was a little girl, I would often be found hanging out of the window of our small apartment in Mumbai and was promptly branded a bandariya, a monkey. I was most inspired by these witty, street-smart creatures, and the monkey-ness has remained part of my alter ego. 

Indian children’s literature boasts of a wide variety when it comes to depicting monkeys. Much more than just mischief, wit, humour or goofiness, these books explore the numerous roles that monkeys occupy in our cultural imagination. 

Folklore and Legends

While I may have detested the portrayal of monkeys in the famous traditional folktale, The Monkeys and the Capseller, Anushka Ravishankar and Malavika P C completely reimagine it in their retelling. The characters of both the capseller and the monkey are explored very differently — Taklu, the capseller, is shown as someone who is creative, while Metro, the monkey, is the chieftain of a monkey gang, giving readers more than just the cap-throwing episode to mull over.

Niveditha Subramaniam and Priyankar Gupta explore the folklore of how earth monkeys came into being in their picture book The Sky Monkey’s Beard. What happens when a young sky monkey decides to do something very un-sky-monkey-like? The story dwells on the theme of making individual choices and understanding the consequences of those choices.

Inspired by a Buddhist folktale, Kaushik Viswanath and Shilpa Ranade’s Monkeys on a Fast follows a troop of overweight monkeys who decide to fast for a day in an absurd bid to lose weight and gain merit! 

Epitome of Mischief

Monkeys can’t shake off their cultivated impression of being mischief makers and it is a recurring theme in books featuring them. One such book is Ishan Trivedi’s The Damroo Man and the Monkey Gang that takes readers through the lovely lanes of Varanasi where a gang of monkeys is running amok and causing a menace. The book outlines the necessity of wisdom and wit in handling difficult situations. Here it takes a cool and creamy pot of thandai and a mysterious damroo man to bring the notorious monkeys to book. Similarly in Anushka Ravishankar and Anitha Balachandran​’s Moin and the Monkey Monster a sneaky and chaotic monkey monster drives Moin ​‘bananas’!

As the ​‘unseen’ culprits behind missing items and unexpected messes, monkeys land the lead role in several books. In Chewang Dorjee Bhutia’s Norbu’s New Shoes, a lovely pair of yellow shoes are mistaken for something else by a bumbling monkey. The Tomato Thief by Niyatee Parikh Sharma and Alankrita Amaya and Mannu and the Jamun Thief by Radhika Chaddha and Priya Kuriyan bring readers face to face with the ​‘thief’, even as they solve mysteries overflowing with ripe tomatoes and juicy jamuns.

Ruskin Bond’s Monkey Trouble and Other Grandfather Stories also intertwines the two species and lays the ground for shared experiences. Likewise, Bandar ka Kunba by Prabhat and Rohan Chakravarty is an unapologetically monkey-approved book that welcomes you to leave your inhibitions behind and join the monkey gang.

Monkeys at Home

There are a few books that investigate other aspects of monkey life – the loss of habitat, for instance. Nandana Dev Sen and Saskia Pekelharing’s Mambi and the Forest Fire brings out the fear of losing one’s home while also addressing issues of self-confidence and identity.

Little Monkey Gets Lost: Where Animals Live by Kuntie Ramdat Balkaran and Anitha Balachandran introduces children to the habitats of different animals through the adventures of a baby monkey that strays away from his home.

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler​’s Monkey Puzzle is set in a jungle where a baby monkey faces an unusual problem of not knowing who her mother is. As she tries to make her way back home, readers discover different species, their unique features and living spaces. 

Monkeys as Proxies

In their Grumpy Monkey series of books, Suzanne and Max Lang normalise different emotions and feelings. Through different scenarios and a little help, Jim Panzee, their primate protagonist, learns to come to terms with his emotions.

Fabulist and feminist writer Suniti Namjoshi brings gender parity to the fore in her Aditi Adventures series. In Aditi and the One-Eyed Monkey, the first book in this series, a female monkey on a quest to explore the world makes a perfect companion to Aditi who wants to tame a dragon. 

Varud Gupta and Ayushi Rastogi​’s graphic novel Chhotu: A Tale of Partition and Love narrates an anthropomorphic story that revolves around a young monkey’s life torn apart by the Partition of India. Just as love begins to blossom in his heart, he finds himself confronting the horrors of Partition. Fear, vendetta, confusion and numbness take over his life, forcing him to explore what freedom really means. 

The Mahatma and the Monkeys: What Gandhiji Did, What Gandhiji Said by Anu Kumar uses the story of the three wise monkeys from Japanese tradition – Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru – who guided Gandhi through his life. 

When Ali Became Bajrangbali by Devashish Makhija and Priya Kuriyan features a monkey named Ali who takes on a civic contractor intent on bringing down his bargad tree, with some help from Bajrangbali. The story manages to bring together multiple themes, navigating diversity and unity alongside environmental protection and coexistence.

While there is an abundance of stories featuring these fun-seeking mischief-mongers, what’s definitely missing are stories of monkeys in their natural habitats that show them interacting with their own kind rather than adapting to life with humans. 

Bibliography

1. The Monkeys and the Capseller (Karadi Tales)
2. The Sky Monkey’s Beard (Tulika)
3. Monkeys on a Fast (Karadi Tales)
4. The Damroo and the Monkey Gang (Hachette)
5. Moin and the Monkey Monster (Duckbill)
6. Norbu’s New Shoes (Tulika)
7. The Tomato Thief (Tota Books)
8. Mannu and the Jamun Thief (Tulika)
9. Monkey Trouble and Other Grandfather Stories (Red Turtle)
10. Bandar ka Kunba (Eklavya)
11. Mambi and the Forest Fire (Penguin)
12. Little Monkey Gets Lost: Where Animals Live (Scholastic)
13. Monkey Puzzle (Macmillan)
14. Grumpy Monkey series (Penguin)
15. Aditi and the One-Eyed Monkey (Tulika)
16. Chhotu: A Tale of Partition and Love (Penguin)
17. The Mahatma and the Monkeys: What Gandhiji Did, What Gandhiji Said (Hachette)
18. When Ali Became Bajrangbali (Tulika)
19. Monkey and the Pencil (Children’s Book Trust)
20. Haribari and the Balloons (Pratham Books)

Image from Pratham Books

About the author:

Harshikaa Udasi is a children’s author who loves spending time with children, books, and book characters. She is often caught having conversations with all of the above. She also runs Book Trotters Collaborative, building reading environments in schools.