Dashrath Manjhi spent 22 years carving a road through a mountain by hand in Bihar, after his wife died before she could get timely medical treatment.
Manjhi was born in 1934 in Gehlaur village near Gaya, where a rocky ridge cut residents off from towns with medical care, markets and jobs. For basic necessities, villagers had to travel around the hill, with journeys stretching 55 to 70 kilometres depending on the route.
The village had limited access to roads, healthcare and education. Most residents worked as agricultural labourers for low and unreliable wages.
In 1959, Manjhi’s wife, Falguni Devi, was seriously injured while crossing the terrain near the hill. With no proper road connecting the village to medical facilities, help came too late, and she died without timely treatment.
Around 1960, Manjhi began cutting into the mountain with a hammer and chisel. He had no machines, engineers or funding.
Many villagers laughed at him and thought he had lost his sanity. He kept working from sunrise to sunset.
To support the effort, he worked as a manual labourer and saved what little he earned to buy tools. When that was not enough, he sold his goats to afford better equipment.
From 1960 to 1982, he chipped away at the rock bit by bit. By the end, he had carved a road about 110 metres long, 9 metres wide, and up to 7 to 8 metres deep in places.
The road cut the distance between the Atri and Wazirganj areas of Gaya district and created a direct path where people had once faced a long detour.
For villagers, it improved access to hospitals, schools and markets.
His work remained largely unnoticed outside the village for decades. Later, journalists and local officials drew attention to it, and he became known as the “Mountain Man”.
The Bihar government honoured his contribution.
Manjhi died on August 17, 2007, at AIIMS Delhi while being treated for gall bladder cancer. He was 73 and was given a state funeral.
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