The Idol of Hindu deity Nandi was not found buried under a mosque

The Nandi idol was discovered after an excavation of the Sellandiamman Temple in Tamil Nadu in 2021.

An image of the Hindu deity Nandi found buried near a religious structure is widely circulating on social media with the claim that the statue of Hindu deity was discovered after digging under a mosque. 

The caption of the post states ‘This is the story of every Masjid, Mazar and Dargah. Beneath them lies the sign of Hindutva.”

(Hindi: हर मस्जिद मजार दरगाह की यही कहानी। नीचे दबी है हिंदुत्व की निशानी)

Facebook Post 

Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on Google, whose results led us to a tweet by Dinamalar posted on 2 September 2021. The caption of the tweet states “Discovery of 1,000 year old Nandi statue.”

According to Dinamalar article, during the reconstruction work of a temple near Mohanur, a 1,000-year-old Nandi statue built by a Pandya king was discovered. Mohanur is a town in Tamil Nadu. Aryur, near Mohanur in Namakkal district, is home to the Pandeyswarar Temple, which was built during the reign of a king over 1,000 years ago. Reconstruction work was also going on in the nearby Sellandiamman Temple.

Taking a cue from this tweet, we ran a keyword search on YouTube, which led us to a news report published by Puthiyathalaimurai TV on 5 September 2021.

The report states that the image is from Sellandiamman Temple, which is being reconstructed, and the Nandi idol was discovered when authorities dug a trench in front of the temple to build a perimeter wall. The idol was handed over to Revenue officials and archaeologists for examination.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the viral claim made along with the image to be shared out of context. The image does not show an idol of the Hindu deity Nandi discovered while digging a mosque. The Nandi idol was discovered after an excavation of the Sellandiamman Temple, Namakkal district in Tamil Nadu in 2021.