A video of an elderly man in India, said to be 188 years old and found in a cave, went viral this week.
The video shows two younger men helping the thin, elderly man, who is only wearing a loincloth, walk over rocks and steps.
The clip was shared on X by a user named Concerned Citizen and has received around 30 million views. He wrote: “This Indian man has just been found in a cave. It’s claimed he’s 188 years old. Unbelievable.”
The man, who has a beard and uses a stick to walk, does look very old, but 188 years old? Many people doubted this claim, including X, which added a note saying: “This is misinformation! The man is a Hindu saint named Siyaram Baba from Madhya Pradesh, India, and is reportedly around 110 years old.”
This note cited an article from the Navbharat Times, published on July 2, which mentioned several stories about Siyaram Baba. It said that he once stood on one leg for 10 years while meditating. Even at 109, he reads the Ramayana without glasses and does all his tasks independently. Baba speaks very little, but many devotees visit him for blessings. He lives at the Bhatyan Ashram near the Narmada River in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh.
Though no one knows his exact age, it is believed that he is around 109 or 110. Some people claim he could be as old as 130, but Siyaram Baba has never confirmed his age.
A fact-checking website, D-Intent Data, also confirmed that the claim of him being 188 was false and stated that the man is indeed Siyaram Baba, a saint.
One user on X, Dr. Dimon Hundeshagen, commented on the post, saying that it is nearly impossible for a human to live to 188. He mentioned that the longest confirmed lifespan is 122, achieved by Jeanne Calment. Even with great genetics and modern medicine, the body’s decline makes such a long life very unlikely.
Concerned Citizen later admitted he made a mistake in writing 188 and said that anything over 120 would have been unreasonable.
Currently, the oldest living human is Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman born on May 23, 1908, who is 116 years old. The oldest living man is John Tinniswood from Southport, Merseyside, England, who turned 112 on August 26 this year. He told Guinness World Records that he has “no idea” why he’s lived so long.
