Verification of the Rataraju Case - 6 -

Use of the expression “8 and 70” for indicating age


Prof. Ohkado at Chubu University, who is a member of the Xenoglossy Research Team, has published a book titled “Research on Spirituality” (Fubaisha, Inc.). In the latter half of this book, an analysis of Nepali in the Rataraju Case is presented from his point of view as a co-researcher observing the session. As a complementation to the analysis of the same conversation part mentioned in Mr. Inagaki’s book “Reincarnation is proved scientifically!” (p. 107, Natural Spirit Inc.), Prof. Ohkado stated as follows:


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We have found evidence indicating that the Nepali Rataraju’s personality speaks is the one spoken by those who speak Tamang language, and furthermore, that it is a very old form of Nepali. That evidence consists of how to count numbers.

When Rataraju was asked about his age of death, he answered “aath sattariri (8 and 70)”. Since you do not say the digit in the first place before the digit in the ten’s place in modern Nepali, Ms. Paudel (who spoke with Rataraju in Nepali at the session) became confused and asked “Do you mean 70?”

To prove Ms. Paudel’s response, all the Nepalese people who listened to this part found it “unnatural as Nepali”.

However, when verifying this issue on site, Mr. Prithivi Galan, age 78, told that people counted as “8 and 70” in Nallu Village in the old days. According to him, after education has been spread, this way of counting has vanished and consequently, there is hardly anyone who knows how to count in this way today.

Masayuki Ohkado, “Research on Spirituality”, 2011, p.81

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The reason why the Reserach Team considered it significant that Rataraju’s personality answered “8 and 70”, i.e. “78 years old” to the question when he died is that this answer in Nepali is consistent with his answer that he “died at the age of 78” clearly made in Japanese at the first session 4 years ago. This utterance is consistent with what he answered in Nepali 4 years later, i.e. that he died at the age of 8 and 70, i.e. 78.

That is to say that this was acknowledged as significant in proving that Rataraju’s personality that had appeared at the session 4 years ago and the one appeared 4 years later were the one and same personality. It is because it could be considered as a circumstantial evidence that Rataraju’s personality was not a fictive one Risa had created arbitrarily.

The fact that the way of expressing as “7 and 80” for indicating an age has been confirmed as the way that actually had been used in the quite old Nepali according to the field investigation conducted by Prof. Ohkado this time can be, in addition to the fact that the name “Rataraju” is a name used in the old days in Nepal, considered to be a supportive circumstantial evidence that Rataraju existed more than about 100 years ago.

This is because it can be estimated that the period of 78 years that Rataraju existed lies somewhere between 1784 and 1933.

The expression “8 and 70” that Rataraju used is rather a natural way of expression as a native speaker of the old Nepali, which can be considered to be a supportive circumstantial evidence of his existence.

Furthermore, this expression “8 and 70” for indicating an age, which is not used in modern Nepali, is something that cannot be learned normally even if Risa had learned Nepali in secret. Therefore, this can be considered to be a proof (of xenoglossy) that Risa had not learned Nepali in her present life.

Aside from the field investigation by Prof. Ohkado, there was another investigation in Nallu Village conducted by Dr. Shobana Bajracharya, a Nepalese cultural anthropologist living in Nepal. In this investigation, Dr. Bajracharya searched for an official family register and other documents and conducted hearings with 34 patriarchs in Nallu Village of what they could recall, but there was nothing that could confirm Rataraju’s existence.

However, including foremost the expression “8 and 70” for indicating an age, there are several utterances made by Rataraju which all turned out to be compatible with the facts, such as eating habit of “kodo”, a sort of millet which is scarcely eaten in Kathmandu these days, existence of many leeches in the village, cremation at the mountain and the flashback image of the village scenery that Risa had, which can be considered as supportive circumstantial evidence of Rataraju’s existence.

It is hard to believe that the subject Risa did wild guess during the sessions and that all of the utterances happened to be compatible with the facts by coincidence.

Therefore, it should be regarded that the reason of Rataraju’s utterances turned out to be compatible with the facts was that it indeed was Rataraju’s personality that appeared and uttered about the nature and living environment in Nallu Village.

<To be continued>