The Jungle Book was based off of THIS real life Feral Child

In 1984 Rudyard Kipling, an English Author, published a book of short stories called THE JUNGLE BOOK. The story featured the character Mowgli, who was found and raised by wolves. That story was actually based off the discovery of Dina Sanichar from 1872. Dina Sanichar (1860 or 1861–1895) was a feral child. Sanichar was discovered by a group of hunters among wolves in a cave in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India in February 1867, at the age of around six.

Sanichar was taken to Sikandra Mission Orphanage where he was given the name “Sanichar” because he arrived on a Saturday. When he arrived at the orphanage, he reportedly walked on all fours and ate raw meat. While he could not speak, he would make sounds similar to a wolf. He went on to live among other humans for over twenty years but never learned to speak and remained seriously impaired his entire life. Sanichar was a heavy smoker. He supposedly died of tuberculosis in 1895.

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Matt’s Thoughts

While I don’t think that Rudyard Kipling set out to make a mockery of Dina Sanichar, one cannot deny that the legacy of the “boy raised by wolves” is one that is largely rooted in falsehoods.

Maybe I’m being cynical here, and I’ll admit that. But Kipling wrote about anthropomorphic animals to teach moral lessons. For example, the rules in “The Law of the Jungle” are meant to keep people, families, and communities safe. Kipling put almost everything he knew, heard, or dreamed about the Indian jungle into them. Other have seen allegories of the politics and society of the time the books were written.

But Dina Sanichar was a real person, who lived a terrible life. Raised by feral animals, then taken and was thrust into a hospital where he spent the rest of his life. It is all so sad.

About DEEP LORE

Deep Lore is a weekly history podcast hosted by Matt Jarbo. Each episode will go into scary True Crime stories, adventures of the unexplained, Pop Culture Lore, Internet Oddities, and even the occasional Reddit  Story. This podcast is for people who are interested in the strange and obsessed with The Weird. The Wild. The WTF.