Video From Hyderabad Temple Viral With Ram Mandir Bhumi Pujan Twist

A video showing ornate decorations at a temple is viral on social media with false captions claiming that the decorations are part of foundation stone laying preparations for Ram Temple in Ayodhya, which is to be held on August 5.

BOOM found that the viral clip is from the Vaikunth Ekadashi ceremony held at Ranganathaswamy Temple, Hyderabad in January 2020. We contacted one of the priests at the temple who confirmed the same.

The clip is viral at a time when the Foundation Stone Laying ceremony or Bhumi Pujan for the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, is round the corner. The list of invitees for the ceremony scheduled for August 5 has been cut short from 208 to around 170-180 people keeping in view the Coronavirus pandemic.

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The 90-second-long viral video gives a view of an exquisite decoration inside a temple premise. Workers can be seen giving finishing touch to the decoration.

The caption with the clip reads 'Decoration of Pandal for bhumi pujan of RamMandir, Ayodhya'.

Watch the video below and check its archived version here.

BOOM received the video on its WhatsApp tipline with the same caption.

The video has been shared from several Facebook pages and Twitter handles with captions claiming it to be from Ayodhya.

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Fact Check

BOOM did a reverse image search with keyframes from the viral video, which led us to a slightly longer version of the same clip uploaded on YouTube with a title 'Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple, Jiyaguda, Hyderabad'. The video was uploaded on January 5, 2020.

Ranganathaswamy Temple is a Vaishnavite temple located at Jiyaguda in Hyderabad.

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We found that the decoration shown in the video above closely matches with that in the viral video.

For further confirmation, BOOM reached out to Vamshi Krishna Acharya, one of the priests at the Ranganathaswamy Temple, who confirmed to us that the video was indeed shot at the temple, and does not have anything to do with the Bhumi Pujan for Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

"This video shows the Vaikuntha Ekadashi ceremony observed at Ranganathaswamy Temple in January 2020. Saying this shows the Bhumi Pujan which is to be held in Ayodhya is completely false," the priest told BOOM.

We also found a 19-minute long video of the Vaikunth Ekadashi ceremony being celebrated at the Ranganathaswamy temple, uploaded on YouTube on January 6 earlier this year. The decoration matches the viral video closely.

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