Fact Check: Ramayana stamps were not issued ahead of Bhoomi pujan of Ram Temple in Ayodhya

New Delhi, July 29: An image of multiple pictorial representations of episodes from the epic Ramayana is being shared heavily on social media as 'Ramayana stamps released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi', ahead of the bhumi pujan of the upcoming Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on 5 August.

Though the claim that they have been released by PM Modi is true, they had been released in 2017 and are not recent. The image has been wrongly attributed to the Ram Mandir event scheduled on August 5.

Modi had released a postage stamp on different aspects of Lord Ram's life at the historic Tulsi Manas Mandir Varanasi, and said he was a source of inspiration for every individual.

On verifying the same on social media, we found that India Postage Stamps website had indeed issued such a set of 11 commemorative postage stamps on 22 September 2017.

The website also stated that 10 stamps were of the denominations Rs 5, while one stamp was of the denomination Rs 15. It also carried photos of these stamps. This matches with the denominations of stamps seen in the viral photo as well.