The Real Life Mowgli: Dina Sanichar, The Wild Boy Who Inspired The Jungle Book
In the depths of a dense jungle in Uttar Pradesh, India, 1867, an encounter unfolded that seemed ripped from the pages of myth and legend. A group of hunters stumbled upon a feral child living in a cave, surrounded by wolves. This boy, later named Dina Sanichar, would go on to captivate the world and spark the imagination of one of literature's most celebrated storytellers.
The Discovery of Dina Sanichar
Dina was found as a young boy, crouched among wolves. His captors observed that he moved on all fours, growled, and displayed the raw, untamed instincts of the wild animals he had grown up with. Reluctantly separated from his wolf companions, Dina was taken to the Sikandra Mission Orphanage in Agra, where the process of reintroducing him to human society began.
Dina Sanichar photographed as a young man sometime between 1889 and 1894. Image via Rijksmuseum.
Life at the Orphanage
Despite the missionaries’ efforts, Dina retained many of his animalistic behaviors. He preferred raw meat over cooked meals and gnawed on bones as though they were a delicacy. Dina’s sharp senses and primal instincts were astonishing, but his inability to learn language baffled his caretakers. While he eventually learned some basic human behaviors—like walking upright and wearing clothes—speech eluded him throughout his life.
Dina Sanichar preferred to eat raw meat and had trouble standing on two feet.
His days were often marked by solitude and confusion, as he struggled to navigate a world that was entirely alien to him. The missionaries’ accounts describe a young man caught between two worlds, unable to fully belong to either.
Toward the end of his life, Sanichar walked upright and dressed.
The Legend of Mowgli
Years after Dina’s discovery, his story would become the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, published in 1894. Kipling, who was born in India, was likely influenced by tales of feral children like Dina Sanichar. Mowgli, the beloved protagonist raised by wolves, shares uncanny similarities with Dina’s life.
Unlike Dina, however, Mowgli finds harmony between the human and animal worlds, becoming a hero in both. Dina’s life, by contrast, remained a tragic testament to the challenges of reintegration after growing up in isolation.
A Reflection on Feral Children
Dina Sanichar’s story opened up a window into the phenomenon of feral children—human beings raised without human contact. Scientists and psychologists have long debated the extent to which nature versus nurture shapes who we are. Dina’s inability to learn language or adapt fully to human society underscores the importance of early socialization in human development.
Yet his life also highlights the resilience of the human spirit. Despite his struggles, Dina’s story endures as a symbol of survival and the profound connection between humans and nature.
The Wild Legacy
Though Dina Sanichar passed away in 1895, his legacy lives on, immortalized in Kipling’s enduring tales of the jungle. His extraordinary life reminds us of the delicate balance between humanity and the wild, a balance that continues to fascinate and inspire.
Dina’s journey from the wolf pack to the orphanage is more than a historical curiosity—it’s a story that challenges us to question the boundaries of civilization, identity, and the untamed spirit that lies within us all.