For today, let us consider a topic which has many controversies going on around it these days. You could have heard about many "Vimanas" or "flying machines" in many of our Puranic stories and Epics. But I do not know how many of you know that there is a Text/Scripture exists on this particular context which explains about air-crafts of the ancient time period? And an experiment has been done on flying in 1895? This text and experiment (both are separate) are creating series of arguments and debates around them. "Vymanika Shastra" is the text and Shivkar Bapuji Talpade was the one who did the experiment.
Before going into the details about these, let us first take a look into the Flying air-crafts and machines as described in Epics and stories.
FLYING CITIES IN THIRIPURA SAMHARA :
Thripuranthaka, a manifestation of Lord Shiva, is known for this Thiripura Samhara. Once, three demons named Taarakaksha, Kamalaaksha and Vidunmaali got a boon from Lord Brahma and got three flying cities. Those cities were made of Gold, Silver and Iron respectively and were capable of revolving independently in the sky. Additionally the demons also requested Brahma that they should die only with a single arrow, shot when the three flying cities converge together and such convergence should happen only in every 1000 years. After getting such boon, they disturbed Devas and Sages by landing their flying cities in their terrain (worlds) and by attacking and destroying them. Finally Lord Shiva, as Thiripuranthaka, killed them in the way exactly requested by the demons.
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Interestingly, the essence of this mythological story (the flying cities) is coming true in modern days. People today are foreseeing such flying cities could be possible in the future. Please go to google and type "flying cities of the future" to know it yourself. Also take a look into this news, which talks about "NASA wants to build a floating city above the clouds of Venus"
PUSHPAKA VIMANA IN RAMAYANA :
Most of you would have heard about this Vimana. It was originally designed for "Brahma" by "Vishvakarma" (The principal Architect). Later, Brahma gave it to Kubera, But the same was stolen later by Ravana. Ramayana describes this Vimana as "That aerial and excellent Vimana goes everywhere at will......and the king(Rama) got in and the excellent chariot at the command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere"
AIR-CRAFTS IN MAHABARATHA :
The Epic Mahabaratha talks about air-crafts in various instances. Krishna was not present during the time of the gamble game between Pandavas and Kauravas. The reason being he had to fight with a king called "Salva" who attacked Krishna's Dwaraka city, staying one krosa (4000 ft) above ground level in his powerful flying machine.
In another instance, where a sage called "Muthkala" performed many noble things and because of his deeds, he got the blessing to stay in heaven. "Devaloka Vimana" came to pick him up but he refused stating that "stay in heaven is not permanent. When the rewards for my good deeds are over, I would be again in the cycle of Birth and Death. I want and aim only for salvation and not stay in heaven."
Another incident as described as below :
OTHER ACCOUNTS :
Vedic texts have also mentioned about air-crafts.
"O royal skilled engineer, construct sea-boats, propelled on water by our experts, and airplanes, moving and flying upward, after the clouds that reside in the mid-region, that fly as the boats move on the sea, that fly high over and below the watery clouds. Be thou, thereby, prosperous in this world created by the Omnipresent God, and flier in both air and lightening.(Yajur Veda, 10.19)
The Rig Veda, talks about the following modes of transportation:
- Jalayan - a vehicle designed to operate in air and water. (Rig Veda 6.58.3)
- Tritala - a vehicle consisting of three stories. (Rig Veda 3.14.1)
- Trichakra Ratha - a three-wheeled vehicle designed to operate in the air. (Rig Veda 4.36.1)
- Vaayu Ratha - a gas or wind-powered chariot. (Rig Veda 5.41.6)
- Vidyut Ratha - a vehicle that operates on power. (Rig Veda 3.14.1).
Let us come back to our topic now. First, the "Vymanika Shastra". It was written by Pandit Subbaraya Shastry during 1918-1923 and it contains 3000 slokas in 8 chapters. It was only written by him but the origin of this is attributed to Sage Bharadvaja and his scripture "Yanthra Sarvasva" (which consists 40 sections and Vymanika is one among them). This text written by Shastry was later revealed by G.R.Josyer in 1952 who then translated it in english. In 1991, the english portion along with the illustrations were reprinted by David Hatcher Childress. According to him, this text contains details about secrets of construction of airplanes which cannot be destroyed, secret of making planes motionless and invisible, secrets of hearing conversations and sounds in enemy planes, secrets of retrieving photographs of interiors in the enemy planes, secrets of ascertaining the direction of approach of enemy planes, secrets of destroying enemy planes and making people in enemy planes unconscious.
The text also talks in detail about various fuel sources used for flying, the composition of metals used in construction of air crafts, the various types of air crafts, the importance of mirros in air crafts and its composition. It mentions about the qualities and skills needed for a pilot to take off the plane, increase and decrease the speed of the plane, stop the plane in the sky, protect the plane when attacked by enemies, the dress code of pilots, food restrictions for them, weather conditions that should be tackled by them when flying etc.
Please go through the following sources to get a clear idea about the fuel sources, the composition and metals used in construction of air crafts, types of air crafts etc.
Few types of Vimanas mentioned in this text are as follows :
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OTHER TEXTS WHICH TALK ABOUT VIMANAS :
Samaranga Sutradhara, a classic architectural text written by King Bhoja also talks about Vimanas, specifically "mercury based" (mercury vortex engine).
Arthashastra by Koudilya (Chanakya), which talks mainly about politics and qualities of a king, also mentions about "Sowpikas" (pilots). It outlines how pilots should be given importance and recognition by the king.
THE EXPERIMENT :
Now we have come to the second point of our topic, the experiment done by Shivkar Bapuji Talpade. He was born in 1864 in Mumbai. In the year 1895, he flew the first unmanned air craft in Chowpathi Beach - Mumbai. (eight years before the Wright brothers' Wright Flyer) He named his aircraft as Marutsakha (wind-friend). He demonstrated that it could reach nearly to an height of 1500 feet, in the presence of "Sayaji Rao Gaikwad" (The Ruler of Baroda) and Justice Mahadeva Govinda Ranade. The news about this experiment also appeared in the Marathi newspaper "Kesari" which was founded by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
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A Bollywood movie "Hawaizaada" which depicts the life of Shivkar Bapuji Talpade's life is also recently released (Jan 30th 2015).
CONTROVERSIES :
In the 102nd Indian Science Congress held recently at the Mumbai University (January 2015) organised a session on "ancient sciences through sanskrit" which included a presentation on Vaimanika Shastra. It was presented by Anand J.Bodas, a pilot and Ameya Jadhav, who is an M.A. in sanskrit and also holds an M.Tech degree. Bodas has told the news media that the ancient air crafts not only flew from country to country but also from planet to planet. This has raised several controversies. (see my post "This is what we think about our ancient wisdom").
There are also controversies going on against the "Vymanika Shastra" text as well as Shivkar Bapuji Talpade's experiment.
FACT OR FICTION?
This question does not have a direct answer. It can be simply said that it is fact for those who believe it and fiction for those who do not believe it. But I would like to emphasize few points here :
1. Science relies on evidence for everything to consider that as a fact. But the absence of evidence does not mean that the evidence itself is absent (not present or not a fact).
2. As previously said in one of my posts "A very basic question" our ancestors have hidden many scientific facts behind mythology. The reason is not because they do not want to share the knowledge, but science without wisdom will aid in destruction rather than construction. That is the main reason why they handed it over orally that too to qualified disciples (Sishya) who have attained the mind maturity to use it only for constructional purposes.
3. The various metals and fuel resources mentioned in the construction of the air craft is also a reason for controversies. We can take it this way. We once used brass and copper vessels mostly in our households. But are we using them now? How many of the modern day kids even know that vessels made of brass can be used in everyday life? Likewise, the metals described here could have also been used in ancient times.
4. If these are considered mythology, then repeated evidences for such things could not have found their place in stories and scriptures again and again. But they are mentioned with proper description and not just as a fairy tale concept.
Thank you all for reading. Please share your thoughts.....
This question does not have a direct answer. It can be simply said that it is fact for those who believe it and fiction for those who do not believe it. But I would like to emphasize few points here :
1. Science relies on evidence for everything to consider that as a fact. But the absence of evidence does not mean that the evidence itself is absent (not present or not a fact).
2. As previously said in one of my posts "A very basic question" our ancestors have hidden many scientific facts behind mythology. The reason is not because they do not want to share the knowledge, but science without wisdom will aid in destruction rather than construction. That is the main reason why they handed it over orally that too to qualified disciples (Sishya) who have attained the mind maturity to use it only for constructional purposes.
3. The various metals and fuel resources mentioned in the construction of the air craft is also a reason for controversies. We can take it this way. We once used brass and copper vessels mostly in our households. But are we using them now? How many of the modern day kids even know that vessels made of brass can be used in everyday life? Likewise, the metals described here could have also been used in ancient times.
4. If these are considered mythology, then repeated evidences for such things could not have found their place in stories and scriptures again and again. But they are mentioned with proper description and not just as a fairy tale concept.
Thank you all for reading. Please share your thoughts.....
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