An image of a set of commemorative postage stamps featuring pictorial representation of episodes from the Ramayana is doing the rounds on social media with misleading claims that they were released recently by prime minister Narendra Modi; the image is viral in the backdrop of the grand foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Ram Temple that will be held in Ayodhya on August 5. 

According to reports, the ceremony will be witnessed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers of all the states.The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra trust is organising the same. 

The set of stamps depicting chronicles of Ramayana is viral on Facebook with the caption,''Ramayan stamp released by PM today. So beautiful.''

The post can be seen here and has been archived here.

The image is also viral on Twitter with a similar narrative. 

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Fact Check

BOOM ran a reverse image search on the picture and found a number of blog posts from 2017. Mintage World, an online museum for collecting old stamps, coins and notes had put up the same image as collection of miniature sheet stamps in their product list in 2017. The description reads: ''India Post released a miniature sheet of Ramayan which consisted of 11 special postage stamps depicting important instances- It was issued on 22nd September 2017- Ramayan is one of the two major mythologies of ancient India. Issue Year: 2017''

We also found another blog about the India Post stamps with the viral image from Ramayana published on September 26, 2017. The blog has a complete collection of all the stamps from the chronicles of Ramayana. 

Further, we did a keyword search with 'Ramayana postage stamps' and found the official Government website of India Post with the same image of 11 postage stamps from Ramayana. India Post had issued them on September 22, 2017 where 10 stamps were of denominations Rs 5 and one stamp was of denomination Rs 15. 

According to an NDTV report from 2017, PM Narendra Modi released postage stamps depicting different aspects of Lord Ram's life at the historic Tulsi Manas Mandir in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also posted a picture from the inauguration event on the same day on his official Twitter account which showed the same set of 11 commemorative stamps. 

Also read: 2018 Video Of Dhol Tasha Performance Peddled As Ram Mandir Celebration