Meshua was the wife of the richest man in an Indian village. When Mowgli left the jungle and arrived at their village, they believed him to be their son Nathoo who was lost in the jungle some years before. The village priest, seeing the potential advantage in keeping the village's richest man happy, agreed to their adopting the strange boy. Unfortunately for the couple, Mowgli's ignorance of village laws and customs resulted in some embarrassing incidents which caused Meshua's husband to lose his affection for the boy. Things came to a head when Mowgli killed the tiger Shere Khan and called his wolf friend Akela to prevent the village's chief hunter Buldeo from taking the tiger's skin. Believing Mowgli to be an evil sorcerer the villagers drove him away and sentenced Meshua and her husband to death. With the aid of his animal friends Mowgli rescued them and set them on the road to another village, although only Meshua showed her gratitude. Her husband was resentful at being forced to leave with only a small amount of money.
When he was approximately seventeen years old Mowgli stumbled across Meshua by accident, now widowed and living with her infant son in a distant village. Astonished that the boy she once knew was now a tall and beautiful young man, she half-believed him to be a jungle god and begged him to stay with her and help raise his new brother. Mowgli was torn between staying and returning to the jungle, but eventually decided to stay.
Meshua in "The Jungle Book 2"
Additional information
There is no mention of Meshua in "In the Rukh", the final Mowgli story chronologically, although the first written. If the story is taken as canonical despite its many inconsistencies with the rest of the series, it must be assumed that Meshua had either died or let Mowgli go.
The character of Meshua was originally supposed to appear in the 1967 animated Disney version of The Jungle Book, but was removed when story writer Bill Peet left the studio, as explained in the 40th Anniversary Edition DVD. But she did appear in The Jungle Book 2.
She also appears in Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgli. Here her husband is named Sanjay and she also has a father named Rahhar and a daughter named Jumeirah (though oddly Jumeirah was dubbed Meshua in the Japanese version).
She also appears in the jetlag-film.
Meshua was also planned for the Russian-made Adventures of Mowgli, but got removed.