Photo of mace, bow and arrow sculpture in Vadodara viral as Ayodhya

Recently, a photo of a gigantic mace along with a bow and arrow has gone viral on Facebook and Twitter. This installation seems to have been constructed in the middle of a circular intersection. Social media users have been sharing the image and claiming that the sculpture has been set up at a chowk in Ayodhya. (Archive link)

अयोध्या में निर्मित दिव्य चौराह -अब बोल भी दीजिए आप लोग जय श्री राम🚩 pic.twitter.com/YzZzwYrlQF

— Ravikant Mishra (@P_kalyan_) December 10, 2020

Dozens of Facebook users have shared the image and accompanying claim.

Fact check

Alt News performed a reverse image search of this picture and found a tweet dated June 14, 2020. The viral image was posted by user Vivekananda Gupta with the same claim. When another user told Gupta in a reply that this was not taken in Ayodhya, he wrote a clarification staying, “I regret the error, this is Gada Chowk at Vadodara.”

Based on this, we did a Google search using the keywords ‘Gada Chowk Vadodara’ and a map of Gada Circle came up in the search results. This location can also be viewed using the Street View feature on Google Maps. It is located on Harni Road in Vadodara, Gujarat. Turning the corner using Street View we come across a white plaque, which contains some information about this square in Gujarati. The plaque states that this is the Shri Bhidbhanjan Circle which was inaugurated on April 15, 2016. It also contains some other details about the site.

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Two other pictures of this structure have also been posted on Google.

Therefore, the claim that the large structure of a mace and bow and arrow was installed in Ayodhya is false. This installation is located on Harni Road in Vadodara, Gujarat, and is known as Gada Circle. Factly had debunked the image when it was viral in July.