Fact Check: Photos of Shivling of Mandawa shared as those of Nepal’s Pashupatinath temple

Vishvas News (New Delhi): A picture of a Shivling is going viral on social media with a fake claim. Users are claiming it to be of Pashupatinath temple located in Nepal. Vishvas News investigated the viral post and found that the picture is of Shivling present in a temple located in Mandawa, Rajasthan. It has nothing to do with Nepal.

Claim

Facebook user Sanjay Suryavanshi uploaded a photo of a Shivling on August 14. The post read: ‘This photo is of Shri Pashupati Nath ji in Kathmandu, which is in Nepal, the photo of this Shivling is very hard to find, send it to your friends so that they too can take the view.”

The archived version of the post can be seen here.

Investigation

Vishvas News used Google reverse image tool to search the image. On the Facebook page Mandawa-पारदर्शी शिव मंदिर , we found the same picture used in the profile image. The same image is viral in the name of Nepal.

On this Facebook page, we got the report of a local newspaper. It stated that there is a transparent Shivling in a temple in Ward 18 of Mandawa. The report can be viewed here.

We contacted the mobile number given on Facebook. Dipesh, the user of that number told that the viral post in the name of Pashupatinath temple of Nepal is fake. This picture is of a Shiva temple in Mandawa.

During the investigation, we found a video uploaded on a YouTube channel on December 5, 2020. In this, it was stated that this Shivling is in Mandawa. Watch the full video below.

Now we searched how the Shivling of Pashupatinath Temple in Nepal looks like. We came to know from a video of ABP News that this temple is on the banks of the Bagmati river. Here, the idol of Lord Shiva has four faces. You watch the full video below.

We scanned the profile of the user who made Mandawa’s picture viral as Nepal’s. We came to know that Facebook user Sanjay Suryavanshi lives in Nashik, Maharashtra.