A social media post features a video of an ice-covered Shivling, claiming that the Shivling at the Trimbakeshwar temple in Nashik has frozen for the first time in 60 years (here & here). This article aims to fact-check the authenticity of the video shared in the post.
Claim: Recent video showing ice-covered Shivling at the Trimbakeshwar temple in Nashik.
Fact: In June 2022, the priests at the Trimbakeshwar temple covered the Shivling with a blob of ice and falsely claimed that the ice had formed naturally. This act was timed to coincide with the opening of the Amarnath cave shrine to attract devotees to Trimbakeshwar. The current viral video is related to this incident. Based on a complaint by the temple trust, the police had registered a case against the accused. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The video claims to show the Shivling at the Trimbakeshwar temple covered in ice. However, the ice was not naturally occurring; it was placed on the Shivling by the priests. Additionally, this event did not happen recently but took place in 2022. A Google search using relevant keywords led us to multiple news reports about the ice-covered Shivling at the Trimbakeshwar temple in Nashik. According to these reports from February 2023, in June 2022, a group of Trimbakeshwar temple priests claimed that ice had naturally formed on the Shivling inside its sanctum sanctorum. This event coincided with the pilgrims’ departure for the Amarnath Yatra in Kashmir.
Due to the unusual nature of the phenomenon, the temple trust decided to investigate and eventually requested police assistance. The police investigated the incident and even consulted the Meteorological Department for their expert opinion (here & here).
After eight months of investigation, in February 2023, the police solved the mystery of the ice formation. They concluded that temple priests Sushant Tungar, Aakash Tungar, and Ulhas Tungar had conspired to place a blob of ice over the Shivling. They then spread false information by circulating photos and videos of the ice-covered Shivling. This act was timed to coincide with the opening of the Amarnath cave shrine to attract devotees to Trimbakeshwar.
Furthermore, the police had registered a case against the three individuals under Sections 120(B) (conspiracy), 417 (cheating), and 505(3) (offence committed in a place of worship) of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR related to this case, which can be viewed here, corroborates the news reports about the incident. This evidence confirms that the viral video does not depict natural ice formation on the Shivling at the Trimbakeshwar temple but rather a man-made one.
To sum up, an old video of temple priests placing a blob of ice over the Shivling at the Trimbakeshwar temple in Nashik is now viral with false claims.
