6000-year-old Lord Rama and Hanuman carvings found in Iraq?

Claim

About 6000 year old Bhagwan Rama and Hanuman carvings in Silemania, Iraq.

#SanatanaDharma #HinduRashtra

Twitter Link | Archive Link

Rating

Explanation

An image of a rock carving is shared widely on social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube with the claim that it is a 6000-year-old carving of Lord Rama and Hanuman found in Silemania, Iraq.

This image is doing its round on the internet since 2015. Link to such claims can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

What is the truth?

Youturn fact-checked and published an article on this claim in September 2018. The article can be seen here.

An article titled ‘Never Before Seen: The Belula Pass Rock Relief’ on the ‘World History et cetera’ website published in April 2015 written by Osama A.M. Amin is found carrying the viral image. It describes the author’s travel to the place where the carving is located.

It is mentioned that the rock-relief of Darband-i-Belula lies on the cliff side of Mount Darband-i-Belula in the Horen Shekhan area, Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan, near the Iraq-Iran border.

The viral image has three figures in it, one victorious warrior and two defeated enemies. Behind one of the defeated enemies is a rectangular space divided into small boxes with Akkadian inscriptions in it.

The article says, “A total of 46 cuneiform signs were identified. The overall scene and the style/shape of the inscriptions on the relief date the work back to the Akkadian period, circa 22nd century BCE”.

“The Sulaymaniyah museum scholars read the king’s name as Tar…dunni, Tar…ni, …birini, …irpirin, or …irbirini (the three dots indicate that the cuneiform signs couldn’t be read), and the name of the king’s father as Ikki, Ikkibshakhmat, or Ikkipshakhmat. It is thought that these inscriptions were added to the relief later on.”

The author of the article also posted a video on the carvings on his YouTube channel in May 2019 with the title ‘Darband-i Belula Rock-Relief of “Tar…dunni”, Iraqi Kurdistan’.

Times of India published an article in June 2019 mentioning that India’s ‘Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan’ believes the carving of the King is Lord Rama and one of the defeated enemies is Hanuman. The delegation with people from India along with officials from Iraq undertook an expedition to look at the mural. However, accounts by archaeologists and historians in Iraq have not linked it with Lord Ram.

Iraqi scholars say the mural depicts Tardunni, the head of a mountain tribe. Similar etchings elsewhere in Iraq show kings and kneeling supplicants believed to be prisoners.

Conclusion

It is found that the claim that the 6000-year-old carvings of Lord Rama and Hanuman found in Iraq is false. The 22nd-century BCE carvings are of a victorious king Tardunni and two defeated enemies.

Please complete the required fields.




Back to top button