An image of a distorted statue is being shared on social media. It is being claimed that a statue of Mauryan emperor Ashoka was recently discovered in Patna.
The post suggests that the statue was buried to erase the glorious remains of India’s history.
“पाटलिपुत्र के पटना में #सम्राट_अशोक की मूर्ति मिली
#ये_सबूत_है कि #हमारे_इतिहास_को_कितनी_दरिंदगी से दफनाया गया था
उस वक्त न हुण आये, न मंगोल, और न ही मुगल।
तो किसने यह सब कुछ किया होगा ?
प्रश्न उठेगा….बारम्बार…
शक तो है कि उन्है अय्याशी व श्रेष्टता की चिंता थी,
इसलिये उन्होने धरती मे अशोक सम्राट को दफना दिया,
वही जहा उसकी राजधानी थी।” the text read in Hindi
At the time of filing the report, the above post had round 1,300 shares on Facebook.
FACT CHECK
News Mobile fact-checked the above image and found that the claim attached to this image is false.
After putting this picture through Reverse Image Search, we discovered that it is an old photo and depicts the statue of ‘Sleeping Buddha’, which was found in garbage dumps at the National Museum in Karachi, Pakistan. This same picture was published on November 17, 2017, in an article by The Express Tribune.
According to the article, the sculptures were recovered along with 395 other rare objects in 2012. However, the artifacts were never preserved, instead, they were thrown in the trash.
Moreover, we did not find any credible news report regarding any recent discovery of emperor Ashoka’s statue in Patna.
Thus our investigation establishes the fact that this image is being circulated with a false and misleading narrative.
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