A video showing a man blowing a shankh (conch shell), while others could be seen with their hands joined on a decorated platform, is being shared as recent visuals from the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela.
What are users saying?: Those sharing the clip have captioned it saying, "At Kumbhmela's inaugural function, the shankh was blown non-stop for 2 minutes 49 seconds - this is perhaps a world record. Modern science will tell you how powerful is this exercise for our lungs & the wave of positivity with this Shankhanad..."
What is the truth?: The claim is misleading and unrelated to the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela.
The viral clip is from February 2023, when President Droupadi Murmu had visited Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi to attend Ganga aarti.
How did we find that out?: On going through the entire clip, we found that President Murmu and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath could be seen attending the aarti.
The right-hand side of the clip also carried a watermark that said "VK News".
Finding the original video: Taking these clues as reference, we performed a keyword search on YouTube using the words "president murmu vk news".
This directed us to the same visuals uploaded on 13 February 2023.
Its title when translated to English said, "A devotee blew a conch on the Ganga Ghat in such a way that even President Murmu kept looking at it | President Murmu Varanasi."
We found that the same visuals were posted on the official YouTube channel of the President of India on 13 February 2023.
At around the 17:33 timestamp, one could see the visuals seen in the viral clip.
News report: A report published by Hindustan Times said that President Murmu offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath temple and also witnessed Ganga aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi.
The President was accompanied by UP CM Yogi Adityanath and governor Anandiben Patel.
Conclusion: It is clear that the video is old and unrelated to the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela.
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