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Mexican Artist’s Work Passed Off As Ancient Indian Stone Carving
Writer: Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
India, 27 Jan 2023 10:35 AM GMT
Editor : Bharat Nayak |
As the founding editor, Bharat had been heading the newsroom during the formation years of the organization and worked towards editorial policies, conceptualizing and designing campaign strategies and collaborations. He believes that through the use of digital media, one could engage the millennial's in rational conversations about pertinent social issues, provoking them to think and bring a behavioral change accordingly.
Creatives : Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
The image is not of an ancient Indian stone carving but rather an image made by Mexican artist Raul Cruz. The artist has taken influences from Aztec and Mayan art alongwith science fiction and fantasy themes.
A picture of what appears to be an ancient stone carving showing a figure operating a computer is being widely circulated across social media with the claim that it is a historical picture and proof of technological development in India in ancient times.
Claim:
The image appears to be a stone carving of a figure hunched over a desktop computer. The caption by social media users reads, “Only 70 years of education has made the current youth of India so frustrated!!! Lalgiri temple, built by Pallava king Narasimha 1400 years back, has a computer and keyboard with electric wire, and all these are made on a stone wall; how can this be..? It was said that there was no modern electricity on the earth and no modern technical instruments on Earth. There is proof of this on the walls of our temples, but we do not go to the temple.”
The image has been widely shared across Facebook and Twitter.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The viral image was made by Mexican artist Raul Cruz.
We conducted a reverse image search on the viral image, which threw up an image uploaded on Pinterest. The image is captioned “Ancient Aliens Evidence, Egyptian Using a Computer?” This indicates that the image is not related to ancient Indian architecture.
In our reverse image search, we came across a book listing on Amazon that contained the viral image on its cover. The book is titled, ‘Cosmos Latinos: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Latin America and Spain’ and was published on 30 August 2003.
After a keyword search, we found a listing on the website ‘isfdb’. This listing noted that the cover was designed by an artist, ‘Raul Cruz’.
After conducting another reverse image search, we came across a website, ‘Strange Horizons’, on which a blog contained the viral image and the description of the artist who created it.
As per the website, Raul Cruz (a.k.a. Racrufi) has been working as a freelance illustrator since 1983 for various clients in Mexico. “Raul creates illustrations for children's books, covers for books and magazines, posters, trading cards, and storyboards, and works in stage design. He has held several art exhibitions in both Mexico and the US and has been attending Science Fiction and comic book conventions regularly.”
The website notes that his artwork is inspired by Aztec and Mayan art and is a mix of traditional elements with science fiction and fantasy themes.
We searched for Raul Cruz and came across his Instagram profile. On September 5, 2018, the same image was uploaded to his Instagram profile with the caption, “Memory of the future: Acrylic on fibreglass, 2015”
Conclusion:
The image is not of an ancient Indian stone carving but rather an image made by Mexican artist Raul Cruz. The artist has taken influences from Aztec and Mayan art alongwith science fiction and fantasy themes. Thus, the viral claim is false.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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