Fact-Check: 188-Year-Old Man In Viral Video Is Actually 109-Year-Old Siyaram Baba

A video showing an 188-year-old man rescued from a cave near Bengaluru went viral a few days ago, with several people questioning the claims about his age. The video in which two men help an elderly person to walk was posted by a user on X (formerly Twitter) and received millions of views. However, several reports now indicate that the mentioned age was wrong.

The old man captured in the video is Siyaram Baba, a Hindu saint reported to be around 109 years old.

In community notes on X, it was pointed out that the age was inaccurate, prompting the user to apologise for the mistake. The original poster of the video agreed, saying that anything beyond 120 years would be “ridiculous”.

In a subsequent post, the user said, “I’m embarrassed I even wrote 188. Anything over 120 would have been ridiculous. Unless he found a lifetime supply of adrenawhatnotnow.”

As per the reports attached in the community notes of the post, Siyaram Baba is presently at Bhatyan Ashram in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh.

Satyaagrah reports that Baba is a devout follower of Lord Hanuman, and you may hear him constantly chanting Ram Charitmanas. He was reportedly born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and attended school until the seventh or eighth grade.

However, following his encounter with a saint, he abandoned his household and travelled to the Himalayas to carry out penance.

According to reports, he spends almost 21 hours a day reading scriptures, demonstrating a very strong devotion towards religious practices. The man’s way of life is strictly ascetic and is known to have stood on one leg for ten years as atonement. He has lived a life of simplicity, often wearing only a loincloth.

Despite his advanced age, Siyaram Baba independently manages his day-to-day activities and does not need glasses to read or do anything.

Meanwhile, there are different reckonings of his age by his followers, with some suggesting he could be as old as 130 years, but the credible ages they noted him to be was around 109 or 110 years.

Meanwhile, the original video has amassed over 34 million views on the social media platform.