In Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, the human woman who recognizes Mowgli as her lost son is Messua.
Messua appears in the later Mowgli story “In the Rukh” and in the Mowgli material connected with “Letting in the Jungle.” She recognizes the boy as Nathoo, the child who disappeared from her village years earlier. Mowgli has been raised by wolves and is known by his jungle name, but Messua identifies him through his appearance and the circumstances of his disappearance.
Her role creates a bridge between Mowgli’s two worlds. He belongs emotionally to the wolf pack and the jungle, yet he also has a possible human family and a place in village society.
Messua is not Raksha, the wolf who adopts Mowgli. She is also distinct from Shanti, a girl associated with Disney’s 1967 film and not the mother character in Kipling’s original stories.