Case file · High strangeness
Shanti Devi's past-life memories
In 1935 a nine-year-old Delhi girl, Shanti Devi, who claimed to have been a woman named Lugdi Devi who died in childbirth in Mathura, was taken there and was said to recognise her former husband and home.
1935 CE · 28.65, 77.23 · status: disputed
The account
Gandhi is said to have encouraged an inquiry. The case became the most famous Indian reincarnation account and was later studied by Ian Stevenson.
The sceptical view
Critics note that much of the testing took place amid publicity and with leading questions; a 1936 rationalist report by Bal Chand Nahata disputed it.