The "dirtiest man in the world," an elderly hermit from an Iranian village, died Sunday at the age of 94. Ironically, he had taken a bath for the very first time in decades just a few months prior.

The hermit, who was addressed as "Amou Haji," breathed his last in the village of Dezhgah in the southern province of Fars, CBS News reported citing local media.

Even though his body was covered in "soot and pus" accumulated over the decades, Amou Haji turned sad when any of the concerned villagers tried to give him a bath, locals who knew him well revealed, as per BBC.

Despite his unsanitary lifestyle, the elderly man was well-liked by the villagers of Dezhgah who did what they could to help him out whenever possible.

In a 2014 interview with Tehran Times, the hermit revealed that his aversion to cleanliness and subsequent life choices were the result of "emotional setbacks" he endured when he was younger, the outlet reported.

While his diet mainly consisted of rotting meat and dirty water consumed from an oil can, Amou Haji also expressed his fondness for porcupine meat in the interview.

Apart from consuming roadkill, the hermit also had a peculiar habit of smoking animal excrement through a pipe. It had been over 60 years since Amou Haji had bathed, and was "living in a cinder-block shack" built for him by the locals, The Guardian reported.

The hermit's repeated refusal to take a bath was due to the fact that he believed bathing would make him ill, a claim that some might think was proven true now, as he passed away just months after taking his first shower in six decades.

The life of this remarkable individual was captured in a docu-film titled "The Strange Life of Amou Haji" back in 2013, CBS News reported.

Representational image
[Representational image] Pixabay

Reports of men not taking baths for spiritual or psychological reasons are not unheard of. An elderly man in the Indian state of Bihar stopped bathing at the age of 40, over two decades ago, News 18 reported. Dharamdev Ram, now in his 60s, has not used a single drop of water to clean himself in 22 years as he vowed to bathe only after all crimes against women, killing of animals and land disputes are stopped. Dharamdev lost his wife and both children over the years, while he remains healthy, despite not having bathed in decades.