are occasionally mentioned in Hindu mythology. In the Harivamsa, Krishna, to convince the people of Vraja to migrate to Vrindavan, creates hundreds of wolves from his hairs, which frighten the inhabitants of Vraja into making the journey. In the Rig Veda, Rijrsava is blinded by his father as punishment for having given 101 of his family's sheep to a she-wolf, who in turn prays to the Ashvins to restore his sight. Bhima, the voracious son of the god Vayu, is described as Vrikodara, meaning "wolf-stomached". The wolf has an ambivalent reputation in Iranian culture, being demonised in the Avestas as a creation of Ahriman, and still features in contemporary cautionary tales told to misbehaving children. Indian wolves take a central role in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book series, in which a pack in the Seoni area of Madhya Pradesh adopts the feral child Mowgli, and teaches him how to survive in the jungle while protecting him from the Bengal tiger Shere Khan. Notes References External links Wolf killed in the Bengali Sundarbans (in Bengali) Mammals of India Mammals of Pakistan Mammals of Bangladesh Mammals of South Asia Wolf, Indian Subspecies of Canis lupus Wolves Mammals described in 1831