A video of monkey visiting a temple by itself and bowing before the idol is being widely shared on social media claiming that this incident took place at Ayodhya, and that the monkey visits the temple everyday. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of a monkey visiting a temple in Ayodhya everyday.
Fact: Visuals show a monkey regularly visiting the temple and bowing before idols at Buddheshwar Mahadev Temple in Lucknow. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
The narrator in the viral video stated that the monkey visits the ‘Baba Buddheshwar Dham’ temple every day for Darshan. Taking a cue from this, we searched for this temple’s location and found that it is in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The visuals of the temple in the viral video also confirm the same. They can be seen here and here.
Moreover, in December 2022, in an interview with Navbharat Times, temple priests and devotees said that the monkey has been visiting the temple regularly for the past 2 months. It first bows down to Parasuram’s idol and then to Buddheshwar Mahadev (a manifestation of Lord Shiva). Though we couldn’t independently verify whether this act of monkey is voluntary or otherwise, it is evident that this incident took place in Lucknow and not in Ayodhya.
To sum it up, video of a monkey visiting a temple for Darshan is from Lucknow, not Ayodhya.
