Fact check: Viral post claims ancient Hindus used guns, shows sculpture as proof [truth here]

A viral Facebook post is claiming that ancient Hindus used guns, showing a sculpture of a half-naked man holding what resembles a gun as proof. Here's the truth behind it.

One of the hottest debates happens on the topic of ancient India. In one such claim, a viral post of Facebook showed a photo of a sculpture featuring a half-naked man holding what appears to be a gun. With this, the claim is that ancient Hindus used guns, presumably long before even the Chinese did. The world's first gun was a Chinese fire lance, which was a bamboo tube that used gunpowder to fire a spear, invented in the 10th century. The viral post on Facebook defies the widely-believed claim to say that ancient Hindus used guns even before the Chinese.

The claim

A photo of a Hindu sculpture has been making the rounds on the internet, claiming to show that ancient Hindus used guns. As proof, the post even highlighted an object that resembles a gun in the sculpture, which is either made of cement or plaster of paris.

The sculpture shows a half-naked man pointing a gun-like object at an animal, which is attacking another person. Using the photo of this sculpture, claiming it to be from an ancient temple in India, the post, the user claims guns were invented in India and used by ancient Hindus.

Fact check

International Business Times reviewed the recent post and the claim made with it. Besides the historical evidence to support the fact that guns were invented by the Chinese, there are some red flags in the photo shared by the Facebook user to debunk the claim of ancient Hindus using the guns long before anticipated.

Human rights activist Babu Gogineni spotted the viral trend and pointed out the errors in the photo. Upon closer look at the viral photo, one can spot a LED TV box in the background. This indicates the photo taken was not only recent but also not in a temple. According to Gogineni, the viral post is not new and has been translated from an original post in English.

Based on these pieces of evidence, IBTimes arrives at the conclusion that that sculpture is not an ancient one and the claim made by the viral post is false.