No, these Saligram stones are not of Jagannath, Puri; and Spanish Flu happened in 1918, not 1902
Claim: “पुरी जगन्नाथ मंदिर का नरसिम्हा शालिग्राम। केवल संकट के समय पूजा के लिए बाहर ले जाया जाता हैं अंतिम बार स्पेनिश फ्लू के दौरान १९०२ में निकाला गया था!”
Translation: “The Narsimha Shaligram of Puri Jagannath. The ‘Saligram’ is removed in the difficult times, last time was removed during the time of Spanish Flu in 1902”
A video is going viral on social media, claiming that the ‘Saligram’ stones are of Puri Jagannath, and that were removed last in 1902 during the Spanish Flu.
This particular post has over 3.2k shares,
Soon, the post was shared widely over Facebook,
The video was also forwarded on Whatsapp,
Truth
First of all, let’s clear out the false claim of the year of Spanish Flu. The Spanish Flu happened in 1918, and not in 1902 as claimed in the viral posts.
(screenshot taken from History )
According to a paper titled ‘Geo-mythology of India by D. Chandrasekharam of IIT, Bombay in the book, ‘Myth and Geology’;
He describes that “For Indians, ammonites and echinoderm fossils are sacred and are known as ‘saligrams’, taken from the Sanskrit word ‘Salagraman’ and is one of the names of Vishnu Chakra and the echinoderms as Shiva(in his phallic form, Linga). The ammonic fossil with circular shape and radiating ribs look very similar to Vishnu Chakra with radiating spikes.”
He also states where these fossils are found, they are found in Upper Himalayas and bought to Nepa; by Gandak river. Vishnu became incarnate in the form of Saligram to save the demons and semi-gods alike.
Ammonites are the fossils of the typically ribbed spiral formed creatures, who lived in the sea between 240 – 65 million years ago when they became extinct along with the dinosaurs.
(screenshot taken from Discovering Fossils)
There had been many incidents of founding such fossil all over the world
Now, looking at the video we noticed that the video shows what a ‘Saligram’ is and what it looks like,
At the starting of the video, the text in the video says, originally in Hindi, “This is a Saligram”.
As the video progresses, the text in the video describes how these ‘Saligrams’ are found and made, the text originally in Hindi, says, “These saligrams are opened by giving them a slight push.”
As the video then progresses, the text describes the ‘Chakras’ on the ‘Saligrams’ and asks viewers to look closely into the ‘Saligrams’, whose description was stated above in the paper.
In the entire video, nowhere it is mentioned that the ‘Saligrams’ are from Jagannath Temple, Puri. It is just a video explaining how a ‘Saligram’ looks, what are its features and how is it formed? The video also advises the viewers on how to take care of them.
According to a slideshow article by ‘The Speaking Tree’, the largest and heaviest Shaligrama can be seen at the Jagannath Temple, dedicated to Vishnu, at Puri in Orissa. The ‘saligram’ in the video most certainly doesn’t look the ‘heaviest and the largest’.
Moreover, these type of ‘Saligrams’ are up for sale on Shaligram Shala and other platforms and can be acquired easily.
Hence it is established that the viral claims that the video is of the ‘Saligrams’ placed at Jagannath Temple, Puri is false and misleading, and it is also to be noted that the Spanish flu pandemic happened in 1918, and not in 1902 as claimed in the viral posts.
