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Dashrath “Mountain Man” Manjhi – a man single-handedly moves a mountain in a labor of love for his lost wife.

Dashrath "Mountain Man" Manjhi cutting a path though the mountain

Unable to get his wife to a hospital, Dashrath Manjhi vows to never let it happen to anyone else

Dashrath "Mountain Man" Manjhi - man single-handedly moves a mountain

Meet Dashrath Manjhi, a poor laborer from the Gahlour village near Gaya in Bihar, India.  Dashrath, known also as “Mountain Man”, lost his wife, Phaguni Devi, who was unable to be taken to the nearest health care center for urgent treatment as the nearest road to the city was 70km long (43 miles) long.  Vowing to solve the problem himself, Dashrath set out on a labor of love, and swore to move mountains in order to ensure nobody else would experience trouble obtaining emergency medical treatment from the nearest town.

You see, Dashrath knew that although the nearest medical facility was 70km away, if a certain mountain did not exist, the trip between the cities of Atri and Wazirganj would be shortened to a mere 1 kilometer.  So Dashrath sold his goats and purchased a chisel, rope, and a hammer and set out on the near impossible task of cutting through a 300-foot-high mountain to create a 1-kilometer passage for travelers.

A madman moving a mountain

Dashrath started hammering the hill in 1959 as neighbors called him eccentric, irrational, and a madman.  Those same neighbors watched in stunned silence as Dashrath emerged through the flat passage 22 years later.  Over the course of two decades, he had single-handedly cut a one-kilometer-long road, 30-feet wide, and 25 feet deep through the mountain to reach “the other side of the hill”.

Thousands of laborers took more than 20 years to build the Taj Mahal.  Dashrath had worked alone, day and night, for 22 years, from 1959 through 1982 to reduce the distance between the Atri and Wazirganj blocks of the Gaya district from 75 kilometers to a mere 1 kilometer.  He became a national hero and was given a state funeral when he died on August 17, 2007.

Today the roadway is wide and smooth enough that vehicles can travel easily through the “Phaguni Devi” pass.

Picture gallery – Faguni/Phaguni Devi pass in India and the man who made it

Image Credits

In-Article Image Credits

Dashrath "Mountain Man" Manjhi India commemorative postage stamp 2016 via Wikimedia Commons by India Post, Government of India with usage type - Editorial use (Fair Use)
Path carved out by Dashrath Manjhi over 22 years via Wikimedia Commons by Sumita Roy Dutta with usage type - Creative Commons License. November 27, 2019
Path carved out by Dashrath Manjhi over 22 years via Wikimedia Commons by Sumita Roy Dutta with usage type - Creative Commons License. November 27, 2019
Dashrath Manjhi entry gate towards Gehlaur Ghati via Wikimedia Commons by Sumita Roy Dutta with usage type - Creative Commons License. November 27, 2019

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Dashrath "Mountain Man" Manjhi cutting a path though the mountain via

 

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