As the date of Ayodhya Ram Mandir's consecration comes closer, advertisements claiming to deliver Prasad (a devotional offering made to a god) at home have gone viral on the internet. Not just social media posts, even news organisations have published articles telling people how to get prasad from the mandir delivered at their homes.
Among the advertisers are companies like 'Khadi Organic' and 'Mandir Darshan', who are selling sweets and advertising it as something that will be obtained from the Ram Temple's inauguration ceremony or Prana Pratishtha ceremony which is set to take place on 22 January.
It's even on Amazon: 'Bihari Brothers' have enlisted nearly six different sweet products on e-commerce company, Amazon under the name of 'Sri Ram Mandir Ayodhya Prasad'.
All of their products claim that this prasad is "directly from Ram Temple, Ayodhya".
An archive can be seen here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar claims can be seen here, here and here.)
Media outlets fell for this too: Several news outlets like News9, Times Now Navbharat and Times Now (Zoom) also shared the claim about prasad from Ayodhya's temple being delivered across India and mentioned the same websites.
But all this is misleading: We checked the official website of 'Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra', a trust linked with Ayodhya's Ram Temple and did not find any announcement about 'prasad' being delivered across India.
The website did not mention any association with companies like Khadi Organic, Bihari Brothers and Mandir Darshan which were claiming to send prasad from the temple.
We also found no such announcement on the trust's official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
Warning post by Vinod Bansal: Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) Spokesperson Vinod Bansal clarified on X that these claims about delivery of 'prasad' from Ayodhya's temple are "false advertisements".
"Sometimes for VIP darshan and sometimes for Prasad sitting at home, many advertisements are being made to mislead Ram devotees and are trying to deceive them. Many such advertisements are also being seen on websites like @amazon," he adds.
Clarification from websites: After a surge in online orders and backlash from people on X, two websites namely, Khadi Organic and Mandir Darshan, clarified that they are not officially linked to Ram Temple's trust.
After advertisements promoting their products misled people, they have now stopped taking orders.
Khadi Organic's website further states that the way they are "delivering prasad" is that "they will contribute our prasad during the first-day pooja, hoping for divine guidance from Lord Hanuman and then mix the prasad and then package it and ship it to all devotees".
Unrelated images on Amazon: We also checked images uploaded by these products on Amazon.
Images uploaded by products are unrelated.
(Source: Amazon/Screenshot)
We spoke to local reporters: The Quint reached out to a few local reporters from Ayodhya who confirmed that there are no arrangements in place to deliver prasad across India from Ram Temple.
They added that only the invitees would be offered some sort of prasad.
We have reached out to the Ram Temple's trust, Khadi Organic, Bihari Brothers and Mandir Darshan for more context, and the story will be updated once we receive a response.
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