Dina Sanichar: The Real-Life Feral Boy Raised by Wolves Who May Have Inspired ‘The Jungle Book’ - Rare Historical Photos

Dina Sanichar’s life was one of tragedy and isolation. Discovered as a young boy in the Indian jungle, he had been raised by wolves and struggled to adapt to human society.

Efforts to teach him language and social behavior were unsuccessful, and he never learned to speak or connect with others in a meaningful way.

He died in 1895 at around 35 years old, leaving behind a haunting story that continues to captivate those who hear it.

Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book shares intriguing parallels with Sanichar’s life. The novel tells the story of Mowgli, a boy abandoned by his parents and raised by wolves. While Mowgli thrives in the animal kingdom, his interactions with humans reveal the complexities of his dual identity.

Unlike Sanichar’s tragic fate, Kipling’s tale delivers a hopeful message about self-discovery and finding harmony between nature and human civilization.

However, few are aware that it may have been inspired by true events—specifically, the story of Dina Sanichar, the so-called “real-life Mowgli,” who spent his early years believing he was one of the wolves who raised him.

The Discovery of Dina Sanichar: Raised by Wolves

In 1867, a group of hunters traveling through the forests of Bulandshahr, in northern India, came across an extraordinary and unsettling sight.

In the dense jungle, a human child was moving on all fours, followed closely by a pack of wolves. The pack soon retreated into a cave, leaving the hunters shocked and unnerved by what they had just witnessed.

Determined to investigate, the hunters set fire at the mouth of the cave, forcing the wolves to emerge. As the animals came out, the hunters killed them and rescued the child.

The boy, who appeared to be no older than six, showed no signs of recognizing or responding to the hunters. He avoided them entirely, moving and behaving more like the wolves that had raised him.

Concerned for his survival in the harsh jungle, the hunters decided to take him to the Sikandra Mission Orphanage in Agra.

At the orphanage, the missionaries gave the boy a name, as he had none. They called him Dina Sanichar, inspired by the Hindi word for Saturday—the day he arrived at the mission.

Dina Sanichar Back Into The Civilized World

During his time at the Sikandra Mission Orphanage, Dina Sanichar was often referred to as the “Wolf Boy.” The name reflected the belief that he had been raised by wild animals, with no prior contact with humans.

His behavior only reinforced this notion, as it was strikingly animalistic. Sanichar moved on all fours and struggled to walk upright. He preferred raw meat and frequently gnawed on bones, as though sharpening his teeth.

“The facility with which they get along on four feet (hands and feet) is surprising,” Erhardt Lewis, the orphanage superintendent, wrote to a colleague. “Before they eat or taste any food they smell it, and when they don’t like the smell they throw it away.”

Communicating with Sanichar proved to be a significant challenge. He didn’t speak any language, instead expressing himself through growls and howls akin to a wolf. Attempts to use gestures or pointing to communicate also failed.

Though the missionaries worked to integrate him into human society, Sanichar never learned to speak. It’s possible that the sounds of human language were too unfamiliar, making them nearly impossible for him to replicate.

Over time, however, he began to adopt certain human behaviors. He eventually learned to walk upright, dress himself, and even mastered what some might call humanity’s most peculiar pastime: smoking cigarettes.

Dina Sanichar did manage to form a connection with one person during his time at the orphanage—another feral child discovered in Uttar Pradesh’s Manipuri region who had also been brought to Sikandra.

Father Erhardt observed this unusual relationship, remarking, “A strange bond of sympathy attached these two boys together, and the elder one first taught the younger to drink out of a cup.”

Sanichar spent the rest of his life under the care of the orphanage, but even after more than 20 years of living among humans, he never fully adapted to their ways.

Social norms and typical human behaviors seemed out of reach for him, as if the imprint of his early years in the wild was too deep to erase. In 1895, at the age of 34, Sanichar passed away from tuberculosis

There Were Other Feral Children Living at the Same Orphanage

Dina Sanichar was not the only child with a wild past living at the Sikandra Mission Orphanage. According to superintendent Erhardt Lewis, the orphanage was home to two other boys and a girl who were also believed to have been raised by wolves.

Their presence suggests that cases like Sanichar’s, though extraordinary, were not entirely unique during that time.

One geographer even claimed that the orphanage had taken in so many “wolf children” over the years that it became almost routine.

Adding to these accounts, British general Sir William Henry Sleeman documented at least five other stories of children who had survived in the wilds of India.

In “A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude,” Sleeman recounts one story as follows:

There is now at Sultanpoor a boy who was found alive in a wolf’s den, near Chandour, about ten miles from Sultanpoor, about two years and a half ago.

A trooper, sent by the native governor of the district to Chandour, to demand payment of some revenue, was passing along the bank of the river near Chandour about noon, when he saw a large female wolf leave her den, followed by three whelps and a little boy.

The boy went on all fours, and seemed to be on the best possible terms with the old dam and the three whelps, and the mother seemed to guard all four with equal care.

They all went down to the river and drank without perceiving the trooper, who sat upon his horse watching them. As soon as they were about to turn back, the trooper pushed on to cut off and secure the boy; but he ran as fast as the whelps could, and kept up with the old one.

The ground was uneven, and the trooper’s horse could not overtake them. They all entered the den, and the trooper assembled some people from Chandour with pickaxes, and dug into the den. When they had dug in about six or eight feet, the old wolf bolted with her three whelps and the boy.

The trooper mounted and pursued, followed by the fleetest young men of the party; and as the ground over which they had to fly was more even, he headed them, and turned the whelps and boy back upon the men on foot, who secured the boy, and let the old dam and her three cubs go on their way.

The boy in Sir William Henry Sleeman’s account, much like the child smoked out of the wolf’s den, survived only a few months after being brought into human society.

While Dina Sanichar was not the only “wolf child” discovered during this period, his story stands apart. Unlike most others, who succumbed to the challenges of adapting to a new environment, Sanichar was one of the few to survive into adulthood

Did Dina Sanichar Really Serve as Kipling’s Inspiration?

It seems quite plausible that Rudyard Kipling was influenced by tales of feral children when writing The Jungle Book, though it remains uncertain whether he was specifically aware of Dina Sanichar’s story.

Kipling penned The Jungle Book in 1894, during a time when reports of “wolf children” from India were gaining widespread attention.

Adding to this connection, Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling, who illustrated the original edition of The Jungle Book, referenced these stories in his 1891 book, Beast and Man in India.

In his autobiography, Something of Myself, Kipling mentioned drawing inspiration from various sources, including the “Masonic Lions of my childhood’s magazine” and H. Rider Haggard’s novel Nada the Lily, which features a bond between a man and a wolf.

Further evidence of his creative process comes from an 1895 letter where Kipling admitted, “I have stolen from so many stories that it is impossible to remember from whose stories I have stolen.”

(Photo credit: Google Books / Wikimedia Commons / Upscaled and enhanced by RHP).