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Vimana

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This page deals with the flying chariots of Hindu mythology. For the pyramid-shaped roof-towers of south Indian temple architecture, see Vimanam

A vimāna (Sanskrit: विमान) is a mythical flying machine, described in the ancient literature of India.

Description

References to flying machines are commonplace in ancient Indian texts, which even describe their use in warfare. Besides being able to fly in the Earth's atmosphere, vimānas were also said to be able to travel into space or submerged under water. Descriptions in the Vedas and later Indian literature detail vimānas of various shapes and sizes:

  • In the Vedas: the Sun and Indra and several other Vedic deities are transported by flying wheeled chariots pulled by animals, usually horses (but the Vedic god Pūsan's chariot is pulled by goats).

In later Indian literature:

  • The "agnihotra-vimāna" with two engines. (Agni means "fire" in Sanskrit.)
  • The "gaja-vimāna" with more engines. (Gaja means "elephant" in Sanskrit.)
  • Other types named after the kingfisher, the ibis, and other animals.

In UFO lore

Some modern UFO enthusiasts have pointed to the Vimana as evidence for advanced technological civilizations in the distant past, or as support for the ancient astronaut theory. Others have linked the flying machines to the legend of the Nine Unknown Men.

Alexander the Great purportedly gave a description of "dozens of silver disk-like objects" entering and leaving the Jaxartes River in 337 BC. Alexander, so the story goes, then became obsessed with the craft and spent many hours in a primitive diving bell searching for them. (Source: History Channel "Unidentified Submarine Objects")

See book: Childress, D. "The Anti-Gravity Handbook".

For a description of alleged ancient Indian flight technology, see:

Etymology and usage

The word comes from Sanskrit and seems to be vi-māna = "apart — having been measured". The meaning of the word likely changed in this sequence:

  • An area of land measured out and set apart to be used for sacred purposes.
  • Temple. ("Vimana" now also means some parts of Hindu temples.)
  • A god's palace.
  • In the Rāmāyana: the demon-lord Rāvana's flying palace called Pushpaka.
  • In later Indian writings: other flying vehicles, and sometimes as a poetic word for ordinary ground vehicles.
  • In everyday Hindi, "vimana" is in regular usage, and simply means "aircraft". (It is probably most often used at airports.)

Mythological descriptions

Sanskrit texts are filled with references to gods who fought battles in the sky using Vimanas equipped with weapons as deadly as any we can deploy in these more enlightened times.

In the Ramayana

For example, there is a passage in the Ramayana which reads:

"The Pushpaka chariot that resembles the Sun and belongs to my brother was brought by the powerful Ravana; that aerial and excellent car going everywhere at will .... that car resembling a bright cloud in the sky ... and the King [Rama] got in, and the excellent car at the command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere.'"

"Pushpaka" is Sanskrit for "flowery". It is the first flying vimana mentioned in Hindu mythology (as distinct from gods' flying horse-drawn chariots). It is also called Pushpaka Vimana.

The special characteristic of this vehicle is, "What ever may be the number of people sitting in it, always there will be one more seat vacant i.e., If N people sit, There will be (N+1) seats". It was basically a vehicle that could soar the skies for long distances. It shows that even in ancient times, people were curious about flight and might have tried to design flying vehicles.

Pushpaka was originally made by Maya for Kubera, the God of wealth, but was later stolen, along with Lanka, by his half-brother, the demon king Ravana.

In the Mahabharata

One example is that the Asura Maya had a Vimana measuring twelve cubits in circumference, with four strong wheels.

The Mahabharata is a veritable gold mine of information relating to conflicts between gods who are said to have settled their differences apparently using weapons as lethal as those we have now. Apart from 'blazing missiles', the poem records the use of other deadly weapons. 'Indra's Dart' (Indravajrā) operated via a circular 'reflector'. When switched on, it produced a 'shaft of light' which, when focused on any target, immediately 'consumed it with its power'.

In one exchange, the hero, Krishna, is pursuing his enemy, Salva, in the sky, when Salva's Vimana, the Saubha, is made invisible in some way. Undeterred, Krishna immediately fires off a special weapon: "I quickly laid on an arrow, which killed by seeking out sound". Many other terrible weapons are described, quite matter-of-factly, in the Mahabharata, but the most fearsome of all is the one used against the Vrishis. The narrative records:

"Gurkha flying in his swift and powerful Vimana hurled against the three cities of the Vrishnis and Andhakas a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousands suns, rose in all its splendour. It was the unknown weapon, the Iron Thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas."[citation needed]

It is important to note, that these kinds of records are not isolated. They can be cross-correlated with similar reports in other ancient civilizations. The after-affects of this Iron Thunderbolt have an ominously recognizable ring. Apparently, those killed by it were said to be so burnt that their corpses were unidentifiable. The survivors fared little better, as it caused their hair and nails to fall out.

Perhaps the most disturbing and challenging, information about these allegedly mythical Vimanas in the ancient records is that there are some matter-of-fact records, describing how to build one. In their way, the instructions are quite precise.

The Mahabharata also tells of the awesome destructiveness of the war:

"... (the weapon was) a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as the thousand suns rose in all its splendour... An iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.... the corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. The hair and nails fell out; pottery broke without apparent cause, and the birds turned white.... after a few hours all foodstuffs were infected.... to escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment..."[citation needed]

Some say that the Mahabharata is describing an atomic war. References like this one are not isolated; but battles, using a fantastic array of weapons and aerial vehicles are common in all the epic Indian books. One even describes a Vimana-Vailix battle on the Moon! The above section very accurately describes what an atomic explosion would look like and the effects of the radioactivity on the population. Jumping into water is the only respite.

In the Samarangana Sutradhara

In the Sanskrit Samarangana Sutradhara (Literally, "controller of the battlefield"), it is written:

"Strong and durable must the body of the Vimana be made, like a great flying bird of light material. Inside one must put the mercury engine with its iron heating apparatus underneath. By means of the power latent in the mercury which sets the driving whirlwind in motion, a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in the sky. The movements of the Vimana are such that it can vertically ascend, vertically descend, move slanting forwards and backwards. With the help of the machines human beings can fly in the air and heavenly beings can come down to earth."

In Mesopotamian sources

The Hakatha (Laws of the Babylonians) states quite unambiguously:

"The privilege of operating a flying machine is great. The knowledge of flight is among the most ancient of our inheritances. A gift from 'those from upon high'. We received it from them as a means of saving many lives."

More fantastic still is the information given in the ancient Chaldean work, The Sifrala, which contains over one hundred pages of technical details on building a flying machine. It contains words which translate as graphite rod, copper coils, crystal indicator, vibrating spheres, stable angles, etc.

Claims as to archaeology

Some say that when the Rishi City of Mohenjodaro was excavated by archaeologists in the last century, they found skeletons lying in the streets, some of them holding hands, as if some great doom had suddenly overtaken them. These skeletons are among the most radioactive ever found, on a par with those found at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Ancient cities whose brick and stonewalls have been vitrified, that is, fused together, can be found in India, Ireland, Scotland, France, Turkey and other places. Some say that there is no logical explanation for the vitrification of stone forts and cities, except from an atomic blast; but others say that vitrified forts arose by an enemy setting fire to a fortification composed of a mixture of big timbers and stones.

[1] claims that: At Mohenjo-Daro, a well planned city laid on a grid, with a plumbing system superior to those used in Pakistan and India today, the streets were littered with "black lumps of glass". These globs of glass were discovered to be clay pots that had melted under intense heat. With the cataclysmic sinking of Atlantis and the wiping out of Rama with atomic weapons, the world collapsed into a "stone age" of sorts, and modern history picks up a few thousand years later. Yet, it would seem that not all the Vimanas and Vailixi of Rama and Atlantis were gone. Built to last for thousands of years, many of them would still be in use, as evidenced by Ashoka's "Nine Unknown Men" and the Lhasa manuscript.

Vimanas have appeared in books, films, internet and games including:

References

The Yantra Sarvaswa of Maharshi Bharadwaja, Vimaana Chandrika of Maharshi Narayan, Vyoma Yaana Tantra of Sounaka, and Vyoma Yaanarka of Dandi Natha are some of them. They contained topics like Maargadhi Karana (Navigation and control of speed during flight), Lohaadhi Karana (alloys used for various components of the aircraft) and Saktyaadhi Karana (production and usage of various fuels used in aircraft). Para Sabda Grahakata is a subject of monitoring the flight tracks of aircraft, navigatory communication system, and monitoring the conversation of the pilots in the aircraft. Maharshi Gouthama mentioned 32 models of aircraft used in Treta Yuga; only one model among them, called Pushpaka Vimaanam, became popular in the Ramayana. The Vaimaanika Sastra describes Tripura Vimaanam that uses a solar powered engine to travel at three levels - on the land, under the surface of water, and in the air. Sakuna Vimaanam is a cross between an aircraft and a rocket - a space shuttle.

A symposium on "Science and Technology in ancient India" was organised in December 1990 at B.M. Birla Science Center at Hyderabad, A.P., India. Many topics of ancient Indian aeronautics were discussed. The Vaimanika Prakaranam in Vimana Vignana deals with instruments like Guha Garbha Darsha Yantra which can locate objects hidden underground from an aircraft. A semiconductor ferrite named Chumbaka radiates microwave signals and detects hidden objects.

The B.M. Birla Scienc Center has been doing active research in finding scientific content in Vedas and Puranas. The Center has deciphered a number of new materials from Amsu Bodhini. These materials comprise of glasses with special effects and metallic alloys with rare combinations - many of them have extraordinary properties unknown to modern technology. Unlike the modern methods which use 'inert' materials, these materials required 'live' ingredients like herbs, tree barks, and tree gums in addition to mineral ores. The sastras had integrated the knowledge of many conventional disciplines like chemistry, materials science, metallurgy and Ayurveda. These materials were widely used in the manufacture of aircraft in ancient India. Some of them can be used in low cost solar energy generation systems needed for India.

Dr. Roberto Pinotti, an Italian "ufologist", presented a paper on 'Aeronautics in ancient India' in the World Space Conference conducted at Bangalore. He told the conference delegates that those aircraft were similar to modern jet-propelled aeroplanes. He agreed that they represent the most complex and sophisticated designs. Some of them used radars and imaging technology instrumentation.

(1) 'Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology' in The Anti-Gravity Handbook (Lost Science), David Hatcher Childress (2) Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India and Atlantis (Lost Science Series), David Hatcher Childress, Ivan T. Sanderson, January 1992. (3) Vedic Physics: Scientific Origin of Hinduism, Raja Ram Mohan Roy (4)The Secret Teachings of the Vedas, Stephen Knapp

Other meanings


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