Fact Check: This viral video is of Chithirai festival in Madurai, not Jagannath Rath Yatra

New Delhi (Vishvas News): A video of Rath Yatra is being shared on social media with the claim that it’s a scene of Jagannath Rath Yatra. Vishvas News found in its investigation that the claim is misleading. The viral video is from the Madurai Chithirai Festival held in the Madurai, Tamil Nadu, which is now being shared as Jagannath Rath Yatra.

Claim :

Facebook user Prashant Patil shared this viral video and wrote (English Translation), “Watch this video clip as an example to know what Sanatan dharam is… What is discipline? What would you like to see? So watch this video clip of Jagannath ji’s Rath Yatra. Millions of people walking together, in one rhythm!..anyone may say anything, but if there is truth somewhere, tolerance somewhere, discipline is somewhere, firmness is somewhere, devotion is somewhere, power is somewhere, then it is only in the Sanatanis… Aha! This sacred sound of mantras, this rare sight. How can one remain enchanted without being enchanted…Jayatu Satya Sanatan Sanskriti.”

Check the post and it’s archive version here.

Investigation:

To know the truth of the viral claim, we extracted several grabs of the video and searched them through Google reverse image. Meanwhile, we found the original video uploaded on May 2, 2018 on a YouTube channel named Balamurugan. According to the information given in the caption, the viral video is from the Chithirai festival held in the Tamil Nadu city of Madurai.

We found the same video on many other YouTube channels as well. Everyone has mentioned this to be video of Chithirai Festival in Madurai. A YouTube channel named Siva Prasath shared a similar video in the year 2017 and wrote in the caption, “Chithirai Festival”.

On the basis of the information received, we started searching on Google through several keywords. We came to know that Chithirai Festival is also known as Chithirai Thiruvizha, Meenakshi Kalyanam or Meenakshi Thiru Kalyanam.

In the city of Madurai, this festival is celebrated in a grand manner for 15 days in the month of April. According to the Tamil calendar, Chithirai is the first month of the year. On the full moon day of this month, the Madurai Chithirai festival is celebrated.

Taking the investigation further, we started searching about the Rath Yatra of Chithirai Festival. We found pictures of festivals of different years, where the same Rath is used. This Rath has been used many times for the Chithirai festival. The same Rath has been used in this year’s Rath Yatra as well. After this we searched for the video of Lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra. The video of the 2022 Rath Yatra can be seen here. The chariot of Lord Jagannath is quite different from the viral video.

For more information, we contacted Gopal Kishan Rajesh, spokesperson for Mathura Pictures, a company that covers this Rath Yatra. They told us that the viral claim is false. This video has nothing to do with Jagannath Rath Yatra. This is from the Madurai Chithirai Festival held in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Many times this Rath has been used for carrying out the Rath Yatra of Madurai Chithirai Festival.

At the end of the investigation, Vishvas News did a social scanning of Facebook user Prashant Patil. The user is followed by 742 people on Facebook. According to the information given on the profile, the user is a resident of Gujarat. Prashant Patil has been active on Facebook since 2012.