One man, one tragedy, one mountain. 22 years later, his hammer and chisel had carved a miracle

In 1959, a terrible thing happened in the small village of Gehlaur near Gaya in Bihar, India. Falguni Devi, the wife of a worker named Dashrath Manjhi, had a bad fall while crossing a rocky mountain. She was badly hurt. The nearest town with a doctor was 70 kilometers away, and by the time help could reach her, it was too late. Their baby lived, but Falguni Devi died from her injuries. This left Manjhi heartbroken and angry at the mountain that killed his wife.

Losing his wife changed Manjhi’s life forever. He was born in 1934 into a poor family. Before this, he had worked in coal mines in Dhanbad and then came back to his village. His community, the Musahars, were treated as the lowest people in society and lived in hard conditions with rocky hills all around them. After his wife died, Manjhi made a choice that would change everything.

He wanted to stop others from going through what he went through. So the man who lost his pregnant wife because the mountain blocked the way to the hospital spent the next 22 years cutting through the hill with just a hammer and chisel. He started carving a path through the Gehlour hills, working by himself every single day. People in the village laughed at him and said he was crazy. Even his own family stayed away from him because they thought he had lost his mind. But Manjhi never stopped working.

How one man’s hard work changed everything for his village

Without any machines or help from anyone, Manjhi cut out a road that was 110 meters long, 9.1 meters wide, and 7.7 meters deep. The work was very hard and never seemed to end. When a big drought hit and other villagers left Gehlaur, Manjhi stayed behind. He drank dirty water and ate leaves while he kept hammering at the mountain. His father tried to make him give up and move to the city, but Manjhi said no.

After 22 years of hard work, Manjhi finished the path in 1982. What he did changed life for everyone in the area. The distance between Atri and Wazirganj, which used to be 55 kilometers, was now only 15 kilometers. People from 60 villages could use his road. Children did not have to walk so far to get to school anymore, and doctors were now easy to reach. Stories like Manjhi’s make us think of inspiring figures who overcame incredible odds.

The Bihar government saw how great Manjhi’s work was and gave him a state funeral when he died on August 17, 2007. He was at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi getting treatment for cancer. He was 73 years old. The government named the road Dashrath Manjhi Path in 2011. His name was put forward for the Padma Shri award in 2006 for his work helping people. Filmmaker Ketan Mehta called him the poor man’s Shah Jahan.

In 2015, a Hindi film called Manjhi: The Mountain Man came out, with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui playing Dashrath Manjhi. The movie shared his amazing story with people all over India and the world. His story of never giving up and his love for his wife will keep inspiring people for years to come. Like many compelling real life stories brought to film, Manjhi’s journey shows that ordinary people can do amazing things.