Q.- The story is a satire …

The author has used the device of irony in order to highlight the satire on the conceit of those who are in power. An irony is a technical device used by the authors to highten the fact that provides the result which is quite opposite in nature. The Maharaja of Pratibandapuram tries his utmost best to falsify the prediction of the astrologers, since his state astrologer has foretold the Maharaja's death by a tiger. He has been further bewared to be more careful from the hundredth tiger.

Consequently, the king banned the hunting of all the tigers on his state. Within a span of ten years, the king was able to kill seventy tigers. He became restless to kill the rest since he was to realise his ambition of killing the hundred tigers. Even he married a royal daughter whose father's state had a large tiger population. Thus, he could kill only ninety-nine tigers and his father-in-law's state too became extinct with tigers. Here the king thought himself safe only after killing the hundredth tiger. His dewan managed it and the Maharaja aimed at the tiger but it fainted with the bullet. It survived but later on it was killed by the guards.

The irony lies in the point that the tiger which caused the death of the Tiger King, was a wooden tiger. One of its tiny slivers pierced into the right hand of the king. Infection flared and a suppurating sore all over the arm. The king was operated and the operation was successful but the doctors declared, “The Maharaja is dead.” Thus the hundredth tiger of wood took its revenge upon the Tiger King.