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People hear of many cases of reincarnation these days, but in the early 30s, information about a girl
born in a little-known locality of Delhi, who claimed to remember a past life, was considered great
news indeed. The girl at first was known only to the local people, but gradually news of her spread all
over the country and finally all over the world. It was natural that the world should wonder about the
authenticity of her story. Shanti Devi, born in 1926, was the subject of speculation all of her life. nI
1985 questions were even raised about her existence in a special issue on reincarnation in a
prominent weekly English journal of India. This dismayed me that someone would raise such doubts
without conducting a proper study. In February 1986, I had gone to Delhi to meet Ian Stevenson, the
leading expert in reincarnation research from the University of Virginia. Dr. Stevenson had already
investigated her case, so I showed him the article. A few days later I met Shanti Devi and spent about
an hour and half with her. Later, I interviewed many people connected with the case at Delhi,
Mathura, and Jaipurand, including Shanti Devi's relatives in this life and from her past life as Lugdi
Bai. I also examined the books and articles published on Shanti Devi from time to time, besides
several reports prepared on her by eminent scholars. This is her story, perhaps the most famous
reincarnation case on record.
On January 18, 1902, Chaturbhuj, a resident of Mathura, was blessed with a daughter, who was
named Lugdi. When Lugdi reached the age of 10, she was married to Kedarnath Chaube, a
shopkeeper of the same locality. It was the second marriage for Kedarnath, as his earlier wife had
died. Kedarnath Chaube owned a cloth shop in Mathura and also a branch shop at Hardwar.Lugdi
was very religious and had been to several pilgrimage places at a very young age. While on one
pilgrimage, she was injured in her leg for which she had to be treated, both at Mathura and later at
Agra.
When Lugdi became pregnant for the first time, her child was stillborn following a Cesarean section.
For her second pregnancy, the worried husband took her to the government hospital at Agra, where a
son was born, again through a Cesarean on September 25, 1925. Nine days later, however, on
October 4, Lugdi's condition deteriorated and she died.

One year ten months and seven days after Lugdi's death, on
December 11, 1926, Babu Rang Bahadur Mathur of Chirawala
Mohulla, a small locality of Delhi, was blessed with a daughter,
whom they named Shanti Devi. She was just like any other girl
except that until the age of four she did not speak much. But when
she started talking, she was a different girl--she talked about her
"husband" and her "children." She said that her husband was in
Mathura where he owned a cloth shop and they had a son. She
called herself Chaubine (Chaube's wife). The parents considered it
a child's fantasy and took no notice. They got worried, however,
when she talked repeatedly about it and, over time, narrated a
number of incidents connected with her life in Mathura with her
husband. On occasions at meals, she would say, "In my house in
Mathura, I ate different kinds of sweets." Sometimes when her
mother was dressing her, she would tell what type of dresses she
V
 used to wear. She mentioned three distinctive features about her
husband: he was fair, had a big wart on his left cheek, and wore
reading glasses. She also mentioned that her husband's shop was
located in front of Dwarkadhish temple.
By this time Shanti Devi was six years old, and her parents were perplexed and worried by such
statements. The girl even gave a detailed account of her death following childbirth. They consulted
their family physician, who was amazed how a little girl narrated so many details of the complicated
surgical procedures. The mystery, thus, continued to deepen. The parents started thinking that these
memories might have been of a past life.

As the girl grew older, she persisted in asking her parents to be taken to Mathura. She, however,
never mentioned her husband's name up to the age of eight or nine. It is customary in India that wives
do not utter the name of their husbands. Even when specifically asked, she would blush and say that
she would recognize him, if taken there, but would not say his name. One day a distant relation, Babu
Bishanchand, a teacher in Ramjas High School Daryaganj in Delhi, told Shanti Devi that if she told

   

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