New Delhi: After surviving 76 years without food and water the mystic Prahlad Jani died at 91 in his native village Charada, Gujarat. He was a devotee of goddess Amba and the seer shot to fame after his claims that he can survive without eating or drinking water.


Here are some interesting facts about him

  • He was born on 13 August 1929 and left home at the age of just 10 to delve into a spiritual life.

  • He as a devotee of Mata Amba. He claimed that he was blessed by the goddess and would dress up as a woman. He wore sari, sindoor and math, or nose ring.

  • Since he was always seen wearing a chuniri or scarf, he was also called chunariwale mataji.

  • He claimed that he was able to survive without food or water and several doctors and researchers tested him.

  • He said that he only came in contact with water when he had to take a shower or gargle.

  • A team of researchers from the Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Science (DIPAS) which is part of DRDO studied Jani in 2010. The study was conducted at Sterling Hospital, Ahmedabad to see if the methods of the mystic could be used by defence personnel. During the study he was kept under CCTV observation.

  • He was featured in is the 2010 documentary film ‘In the Beginning There Was Light’. The film by Austrian director P. A. Straubinger looked at people who supposedly nourish themselves with ‘light’.

  • Before his death, he was living in a cave nearAmbaji temple on the hill of Banaskantha, 180 km from Ahmedabad in Gujarat. According to reports he had created this cave and it was like his ashram.

  • Reports say that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited his ashram.