Unexplained Mysteries of Vimana : Ancient Indian Aircraft
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimana / http://www.crystalinks.com/ancientaircraft.html
A vimana is a mythological flying machine, described in the ancient mythology of India. References to these flying machines are commonplace in ancient Indian texts, even describing their use in warfare. As well as being able to fly within Earth’s atmosphere, vimanas were also said to be able to travel into space and travel submerged underwater.
Descriptions in the Vedas and later Indian literature detail vimanas 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 Pusan’s chariot is pulled by goats).
* The “agnihotra-vimana” with two engines. (Agni means fire in Sanskrit.)
* The “gaja-vimana” with more engines. (Gaja means elephant in Sanskrit.)
* Other types named after the kingfisher, ibis, and other animals.
The word comes from Sanskrit and seems to be vi-mana = ‘apart’ or ‘having been measured”. The word also means a part of a Hindu temple. 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
* A god’s palace
* In the Ramayana: the demon-lord Ravana’s flying palace called Pushpaka.
* In later Indian writings: other flying vehicles, and sometimes as a poetic word for ordinary ground vehicles.
In some modern Indian languages, the word vimana means ordinary real aircraft.
The Buddhist book Vimanavatthu (Pali for “Vimana Stories”) uses the word “vimana” with a different meaning: “a small piece of text used as the inspiration for a Buddhist sermon”.
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”)
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 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.
The core epic of the Mahabharata mentions no vimanas, but vimanas often occur in the large amount of matter which was added to the Mahabharata corpus later. 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’ (Indravajra) 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 Vrishis 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.”
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…” 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 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.
Archaeological Claims
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.
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 scientist, 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.
* Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India and Atlantis (Lost Science Series), David Hatcher Childress, Ivan T. Sanderson, January 1992.
* Vedic Physics: Scientific Origin of Hinduism, Raja Ram Mohan Roy
* The Secret Teachings of the Vedas, Stephen Knapp
* Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology in The Anti-Gravity Handbook (Lost Science), David Hatcher Childress
The Anti-Gravity Handbook – by David Childress
Many researchers into the UFO enigma tend to overlook a very important fact. While it assumed that most flying saucers are of alien, or perhaps Governmental Military origin, another possible origin of UFOs is ancient India and Atlantis. What we know about ancient Indian flying vehicles comes from ancient Indian sources; written texts that have come down to us through the centuries.
There is no doubt that most of these texts are authentic; many are the well known ancient Indian Epics themselves, and there are literally hundreds of them. Most of them have not even been translated into English yet from the old Sanskrit.
Indian Emperor Ashoka started a “Secret Society of the Nine Unknown Men”– great Indian scientists who were supposed to catalogue the many sciences. Ashoka kept their work secret because he was afraid that the advanced science catalogued by these men, pulled from ancient Indian sources, would be used for the evil purpose of war, which Ashoka was strongly against, having been converted to Buddhism after defeating a rival army in a bloody battle. The “Nine Unknown Men” wrote a total of nine books, presumably one each. Book number was “The Secrets of Gravitation!”
This book, known to historians, but not actually seen by them dealt chiefly with “gravity control.” It is presumably still around somewhere, kept in a secret library in India, Tibet or elsewhere (perhaps even in North America somewhere). One can certainly understand Ashoka’s reasoning for wanting to keep such knowledge a secret, assuming it exists.
Ashoka was also aware of devastating wars using such advanced vehicles and other “futuristic weapons” that had destroyed the ancient Indian “Rama Empire” several thousand years before. Only a few years ago, the Chinese discovered some Sanskrit documents in Lhasa, Tibet and sent them to the University of Chandrigarh to be translated. Dr. Ruth Reyna of the university said recently that the documents contain directions for building interstellar spaceships!
Their method of propulsion, she said, was “anti-gravitational” and was based upon a system analogous to that of “laghima,” the unknown power of the ego existing in man’s physiological makeup, “a centrifugal force strong enough to counteract all gravitational pull.” According to Hindu Yogis, it is this “laghima” which enables a person to levitate.
Dr. Reyna said that on board these machines, which were called “Astras” by the text, the ancient Indians could have sent a detachment of men onto any planet, according to the document, which is thought to be thousands of years old. The manuscripts were also said to reveal the secret of “antima”; “the cap of invisibility” and “garima”; “how to become as heavy as a mountain of lead.”
Naturally, Indian scientists did not take the texts very seriously, but then became more positive about the value of them when the Chinese announced that they were including certain parts of the data for study in their space program! This was one of the first instances of a government admitting to be researching anti-gravity.
The manuscripts did not say definitely that interplanetary travel was ever made but did mention, of all things, a planned trip to the Moon, though it is not clear whether this trip was actually carried out. However, one of the great Indian epics, the Ramayana, does have a highly detailed story in it of a trip to the moon in a Vimana (or “Astra”), and in fact details a battle on the moon with an “Asvin” (or Atlantean”) airship. This is but a small bit of recent evidence of anti-gravity and aerospace technology used by Indians.
To really understand the technology, we must go much further back in time. The so-called “Rama Empire” of Northern India and Pakistan developed at least fifteen thousand years ago on the Indian sub-continent and was a nation of many large, sophisticated cities, many of which are still to be found in the deserts of Pakistan, northern, and western India. Rama existed, apparently, parallel to the Atlantean civilization in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, and was ruled by “enlightened Priest-Kings” who governed the cities.
The seven greatest capital cities of Rama were known in classical Hindu texts as “The Seven Rishi Cities.” According to ancient Indian texts, the people had flying machines which were called “Vimanas.” The ancient Indian epic describes a Vimana as a double-deck, circular aircraft with portholes and a dome, much as we would imagine a flying saucer. It flew with the “speed of the wind” and gave forth a “melodious sound.” There were at least four different types of Vimanas; some saucer shaped, others like long cylinders (“cigar shaped airships”). The ancient Indian texts on Vimanas are so numerous, it would take volumes to relate what they had to say.
The ancient Indians, who manufactured these ships themselves, wrote entire flight manuals on the control of the various types of Vimanas, many of which are still in existence, and some have even been translated into English. The Samara Sutradhara is a scientific treatise dealing with every possible angle of air travel in a Vimana. There are 230 stanzas dealing with the construction, take-off, cruising for thousand of miles, normal and forced landings, and even possible collisions with birds. In 1875, the Vaimanika Sastra, a fourth century B.C. text written by Bharadvajy the Wise, using even older texts as his source, was rediscovered in a temple in India. It dealt with the operation of Vimanas and included information on the steering, precautions for long flights, protection of the airships from storms and lightning and how to switch the drive to “solar energy” from a free energy source which sounds like “anti-gravity.”
The Vaimanika Sastra (or Vymaanika-Shaastra) has eight chapters with diagrams, describing three types of aircraft, including apparatuses that could neither catch on fire nor break. It also mentions 31 essential parts of these vehicles and 16 materials from which they are constructed, which absorb light and heat; for which reason they were considered suitable for the construction of Vimanas.
This document has been translated into English and is available by writing the publisher: Vymaanidashaastra Aeronautics by Maharishi Bharadwaaja, translated into English and edited, printed and published by Mr. G. R.Josyer, Mysore, India, 1979 (sorry, no street address). Mr. Josyer is the director of the International Academy of Sanskrit Investigation, located in Mysore. There seems to be no doubt that Vimanas were powered by some sort of “anti-gravity.” Vimanas took off vertically, and were capable of hovering in the sky, like a modern helicopter or dirigible. Bharadvajy the Wise refers to no less than 70 authorities and 10 experts of air travel in antiquity.
These sources are now lost. Vimanas were kept in a Vimana Griha, a kind of hanger, and were sometimes said to be propelled by a yellowish-white liquid, and sometimes by some sort of mercury compound, though writers seem confused in this matter. It is most likely that the later writers on Vimanas, wrote as observers and from earlier texts, and were understandably confused on the principle of their propulsion. The “yellowish-white liquid” sounds suspiciously like gasoline, and perhaps Vimanas had a number of different propulsion sources, including combustion engines and even “pulse-jet” engines.
It is interesting to note, that the Nazis developed the first practical pulse- jet engines for their V-8 rocket “buzz bombs.” Hitler and the Nazi staff were exceptionally interested in ancient India and Tibet and sent expeditions to both these places yearly, starting in the 30’s, in order to gather esoteric evidence that they did so, and perhaps it was from these people that the Nazis gained some of their scientific information!
According to the Dronaparva, part of the Mahabarata, and the Ramayana, one Vimana described was shaped like a sphere and born along at great speed on a mighty wind generated by mercury. It moved like a UFO, going up, down, backwards and forwards as the pilot desired. In another Indian source, the Samar, Vimanas were “iron machines, well-knit and smooth, with a charge of mercury that shot out of the back in the form of a roaring flame.” Another work called the Samaranganasutradhara describes how the vehicles were constructed. It is possible that mercury did have something to do with the propulsion, or more possibly, with the guidance system.
Curiously, Soviet scientists have discovered what they call “age-old instruments used in navigating cosmic vehicles” in caves in Turkestan and the Gobi Desert. The “devices” are hemispherical objects of glass or porcelain, ending in a cone with a drop of mercury inside. It is evident that ancient Indians flew around in these vehicles, all over Asia, to Atlantis presumably; and even, apparently, to South America. Writing found at Mohenjodaro in Pakistan (presumed to be one of the “Seven Rishi Cities of the Rama Empire”) and still undeciphered, has also been found in one other place in the world.
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