Dina Sanichar was raised in the jungles of India's Uttar Pradesh state by wolves until he was discovered by hunters in 1867 and taken to an orphanage. Dina Sanichar would later serve as Rudyard Kipling's inspiration for the character of Mowgli.
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| Dina Sanichar would later serve as the inspiration for the character of Mowgli created by Rudyard Kipling. IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons |
It was the year 1867, and the setting was the Bulandshahr district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. One night, a group of hunters was making their way through the forest when they came across an opening and decided to camp there. They could see the entrance to a cave beyond it, which they assumed was guarded by a lone wolf, and they wanted to investigate.
The hunters were stopped in their tracks after setting their target for an attack when they discovered that this animal was not, in fact, an animal at all. It was a small child, no older than six years old.
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| Dina Sanichar, The Real-Life ‘Mowgli’ Who Was Raised By Wolves. IMAGE: Listopedia |
The hunters brought him to the Sikandra Mission Orphanage in the city of Agra. The missionaries gave him a name because he didn't have one. They named him Dina Sanichar, which is derived from the Hindi word for Saturday, the day he arrived.
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| Dina Sanichar, The Real-Life ‘Mowgli’ Who Was Raised By Wolves. IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons |
Furthermore, when he first arrived at the orphanage, he refused to eat any of the prepared meals. Sanichar embraced and incorporated smoking as one of the few human behaviors into his own lifestyle. Many believe that his smoking contributed to the development of tuberculosis. Dina died of tuberculosis in 1895, when he was only 29 years old.