Dina Sanichar - The Wolf-Man From India
They found him living with wolves in a cave in the jungles of India in 1872. Was he a real life Mowgli?
Dina Sanichar -Source : Wiki Media CommonsA story doing the rounds of the internet these days is of a feral boy named Dina Sanichar. The 7-year-old boy was found in a cave living amongst wolves in the jungles of India in 1872, making people draw parallels with Rudyard Kipling’s character of Mowgli from the Jungle Book, some claiming Dina Sanichar was the inspiration behind Mowgli.
Several articles have been penned on this story, a few on Medium itself.
According to them :
Dina Sancihar was in a cave, living with wolves, in a jungle of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh when found by a group of hunters in 1872. The hunters smoked the cave, killed the wolves, and “rescued” the 7-year-old feral boy, who still had scars and wounds on his body.
They took the boy to Sikandra Mission Orphanage near Agra(Taj Mahal), where the Superintendent of the orphanage, Mr. Reverend Erhardt, placed him under his care and supervision.
It is here they named him Sanichar because he arrived on a Saturday. Sanichar(derived from Shanivaar) means Saturday in Hindi. The boy was a wolf-man in every sense of the word- he walked on all fours, drank water like a dog, and ate raw meat. He Gnawed on bones to sharpen his teeth. The only noises he made were growling and grunting. He explored everything like a dog; by smelling it. He snarled and snapped at any attempts to civilize him and tore his clothes to shreds the first time they clothed him. His friends were other dogs at the orphanage; he was too wild to socialize with normal children. He grew a penchant for smoking that eventually killed him of tuberculosis at age 35 in 1895.
Is it true?
Here is a fact check.
The Capture of Dina Sanichar
An Irish geologist, Valentine Ball, who worked in India for the Geological Survey of India from 1864 to 1881, writes about this incident in his book “The Jungle Life”(1880). Ball writes in the book that he read about Dina Sanichar’s story in the papers :
Ball was intrigued with the story and wrote a letter to Mr.Erhardt to confirm its accuracy. From the book itself:
A feral boy was indeed brought to the orphanage on March 6th, 1872 but died a few months later. The boy was not Dina Sanichar. According to Mr.Erhardt, Sanichar was already 13–14 years old when the hunters brought the second feral boy to the orphanage in 1872. Refer to the screenshot from the book above.
Ferris George C in Sanichar the Wolf-Boy of India(1902) wrote about Sanichar’s capture by hunters in 1867 from the jungles of Bulandshahar, a district in Uttar Pradesh. The hunters failed in their first attempt and reported the matter to the magistrate in Bulandshahar, who told them to go back, capture the thing and ascertain what it was. Dina Sanichar was captured in the same fashion as suggested in the articles(by smoking the cave), except the wolf living with him was allowed to leave the cave, not killed.
Check: It’s not true, but it’s not false either. There were too many feral boys captured and wannabe feral boys(for sensation) in those days that the years and stories got mixed up. A witness interrogated in 1874 by Valentine Ball to inquire about Sanichar’s origins claimed to have seen him presented before a magistrate less than nine years ago(from 1874), recalling he was a complete “Jaanwar” (Hindi for animal) at that time. It supports the story of Sanichar’s capture by Ferris George C, but I doubt it took place in the year 1867.
Ferris George C mentions Sanichar was brought to the orphanage on Saturday, February 4th (year not mentioned). But February 4th, 1867 was not a Saturday. The subsequent Saturday, 4th February was in 1871. However, February 4th, 1865 was a Saturday. If a 7-year-old Sanichar was brought to the orphanage on that day, he would be exactly 14 years old in 1872, as Mr.Erhardt communicated to Valentine Ball in his letter. It strengthens the belief that 1865 was the year they captured Sanichar.
His Diet and Habits- He only Ate Raw Meat and Walked on All Fours
Check: Mostly True. Dina Sanichar indeed was the epitome of a feral boy when brought to the orphanage. He walked on his elbows and knees, not knees and hands as pointed out everywhere. He made inarticulate noises, growled and grunted, and smelled food before deciding to eat it; it was his primary sense. He preferred raw meat initially, but as time went by, he got accustomed to eating cooked meat. He gnawed on bones and even buried them in the ground to dig up later like dogs. He raged and behaved like a wild carnivore but eventually was partially docile to the new set of rules at the orphanage.
Sanichar Remained a Wild Animal Throughout his Life. His Only Friends were other Dogs
Check: False. Sanichar never learned to speak, but they did manage to teach him to use sign language. He beat on his stomach when hungry and imitated the smoking of a cigar when he wanted one. They made him do anything using sign language: sit, walk, run, jump. Even stay still and pose for the camera.
Source : Wiki Media CommonsWhen a boy at the orphanage, who Sanichar had strangely grown very fond of, died, Sanichar pointed to himself, then at the friend’s body and then towards the sky. The missionaries at the orphanage found this display of higher human emotions by him very touching. They interpreted this as Sanichar indicating “his spirit will reunite with his friend’s spirit in heaven one day.”
Sanichar did not become an intelligent human walking upright all the time, but he was also no longer the wild creature he used to be when first brought to the orphanage.
Sanichar Become a Chain Smoker and Died of Tuberculosis
Check: Mostly False. There is no evidence to suggest Sanichar loved smoking so much that he became a chain smoker. He was fond of smoking cigars(modern cigarettes not introduced until 1910 in India) and probably smoked Beedi’s( tobacco wrapped in tendu leaf) too. I doubt the missionaries were providing him an endless supply of cigars and beedi’s to smoke at will. He died of general debility, with no mention of TB or any lung disease in the primary sources I have referred.
Was Dina Sanichar A Mental Retard Abandoned By his Parents in the Jungle and Found Outside a Cave?
Check: False. Sanichar was a real feral boy. All his mannerisms and habits pointed towards that. Interestingly the first time the hunters tried to capture him, the wolf he lived with ran to the top of a hillock, around a boulder, and uttered a wailing cry. He then disappeared into a nearby cave. Sanichar, who was seated atop that boulder, stood on his hind legs at this cry. He then scrambled on all fours and dashed towards the cave after the wolf. The wolf and Sanichar were communicating, which indicates they had been together for a very long time. They were a pack.
Dina Sanichar Was The Inspiration For Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli(The Jungle Book)
Check: No one knows if it was the specific story of Dina Sanichar that was Kipling’s inspiration for Mowgli. There were too many feral children stories in those days. Kipling was inspired presumably by the crux of all these stories.
Conclusion: I give the story a truthfulness rating of 80/100. Most of the story is true, although some specific details are wrong and some purposely distorted to captivate readers. There are not many primary sources for information on Sanichar, which makes gathering evidence hard.
Sources :
Ferris, George C. (3 June 1902). Sanichar the Wolf-Boy of India
Ball, Valentine (1880). Jungle life in India.
Copyright Sumit Kumar - All Rights Reserved
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