In Rudyard Kipling’s “The Miracle of Purun Bhagat,” Purun Bhagat had been a prime minister before becoming an ascetic.
The story appears in The Second Jungle Book, Kipling’s 1895 follow-up collection. Purun Dass rises to become the prime minister of an unnamed Indian state, but after years of political responsibility he experiences a spiritual crisis and renounces his position and possessions.
He travels into the Himalayas and lives as a holy man near a mountain village. There he develops a close relationship with the local animals, including bears and other creatures that visit him. His compassion becomes central to the story when a landslide threatens the village and the animals alert him to the danger.
Readers sometimes confuse Purun Bhagat with a hereditary religious figure because of his later life. Kipling’s point is that he enters asceticism only after holding one of the highest secular offices in the state. The story combines political biography, spiritual renunciation, and a dramatic mountain rescue.