Daniel Tarr et al.

UFOs and Vimanas

- UFOk és "Repülő Szekerek" -

2013.

Vimana
Vimanas are described in ancient Indian literature as the ‘chariots of the gods’, a
sort of technological vehicles similar to modern one but also able to have much
more incredible powers in confront to our airplanes.

In the Vedic literature of India, there are many descriptions of flying machines
that are generally called „vimanas”. These fall into two categories: (1) manmade
craft that resemble airplanes and fly with the aid of birdlike wings, and (2)
unstreamlined structures that fly in a mysterious manner and are generally not made
by human beings. The machines in category (1) are described mainly in medieval,
secular Sanskrit works dealing with architecture, automata, military siege engines,
and other mechanical contrivances. Those in category (2) are described in ancient
works such as the Rig Veda, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Puranas, and
they have many features reminiscent of UFOs.

Ancient Flying Machines

Reference to ancient Indian flying vehicles comes from ancient Indian sources, many
are the well known ancient Indian Epics, and there are literally hundreds of them.
Most of them have not even been translated into English yet from the old sanskrit.

Vimana
It is claimed that 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."

» Shivkur Bapuji Talpade was born in 1864, was a Sanskrit scholar. His birth place
is Chirabazar at Dukkarwadi in Bombay. From his young age was attracted by the »
Vaimanika Shastra (Aeronautical Science) expounded by the great Indian sage
Maharishi Bhardwaja.

Shivkur Bapuji Talpade’s unmanned aircraft flew to a height of 1500 feet before
crashing down and the historian, Knapp adds that additional information on the
mercury engines can be found in the ancient Vedic text called Samaranga Sutradhara.
This text also devotes 230 verses, to the use of these machines in peace and war.

The Indologist William Clarendon, who has written down a detailed description of
the mercury vortex engine in his translation of Samaranga Sutradhara quotes thus,

‘Inside the circular air frame, place the mercury-engine with its solar mercury
boiler at the aircraft center. By means of the power latent in the heated mercury
which sets the driving whirlwind in motion a man sitting inside may travel a great
distance in a most marvelous manner.

Four strong mercury containers must be built into the interior structure. When
these have been heated by fire through solar or other sources the vimana (aircraft)
develops thunder-power through the mercury. It is also added that this success of
an Indian scientist was not liked by the Imperial rulers.

Warned by the British Government the Maharaja of Baroda stopped helping Talpade.
His efforts to make known the greatness of Vedic Shastras was recognized by Indian
scholars, who gave him the title of Vidya Prakash Pra-deep.

[ Source : Biblioteca Pleyades - "The Vimanas : The Ancient Flying Machines" by

Vigyan Prasar]

Vimanas of Ancient India

India, according to Dr. V. Raghavan, retired head of the Sanskrit department of
India's prestigious University of Madras, was alone in playing host to
extraterrestrials in prehistory. Dr. Raghavan contends that centuries-old documents
in Sanskrit (the classical language of India and Hinduism) prove that aliens from
outer space visited his nation.

"Fifty years of researching this ancient works convinces me that there are livings
beings on other planets, and that they visited earth as far back as 4,000 B.C.",
the scholar says. "There is a just a mass of fascinating information about flying
machines, even fantastic science fiction weapons, that can be found in translations
of the Vedas (scriptures), Indian epics, and other ancient Sanskrit text".

In the Mahabharata (writings), there is notion of divine lighting and ray weapons,
even a kind of hypnotic weapon. And in the Ramayana (writings), there is a
description of Vimanas, or flying machines, that navigated at great heights with
the aid of quicksilver and a great propulsive wind.

"These were space vehicles similar to the so-called flying saucers reported
throughout the world today. The Ramayana even describes a beautiful chariot which
'arrived shining, a wonderful divine car that sped through the air'. In another
passage, there is mention of a chariot being seen 'sailing overhead like a moon' ".

The references in the Mahabharata are no less astounding:

- At Rama`s behest, the magnificent chariot rose up to a mountain of cloud with a

tremendous din. Another passage reads: Bhima flew with his Vimana on an enormous
ray which was as brilliant as the sun and made a noise like the thunder of a storm.

- In the ancient Vymanka-Shastra (science of aeronautics), there is a description

of a Vimana: "An apparatus which can go by its own force, from one place to place
or globe to globe".

- Dr. Raghavan points out, "The text's revelations become even more astounding.
Thirty-one parts-of which the machine consists-are described, including a
photographing mirror underneath. The text also enumerates 16 kinds of metal that
are needed to construct the flying vehicle: `Metals suitable, lighare 16 kinds`.
But only three of them are known to us today. The rest remain untranslatable."
- Another authority who agrees with Dr. Raghavan`s interpretations is Dr. A.V.
Krishna Murty, professor of aeronautics at the Indian Institute of Science in
Bangalore. "It is true," Dr. Krishna Murty says, "that the ancient Indian Vedas and
other text refer to aeronautics, spaceships, flying machines, ancient astronauts.
"A study of the Sanskrit texts has convinced me that ancient India did know the
secret of building flying machines-and that those machines were patterned after
spaceships coming from other planets."

Vimana
The Vedic traditions of India tell us that we are now in the Fourth Age of mankind.
The Vedas call them the "The Golden Age", "The Silver Age", and "The Bronze Age"
and we are now, according to their scriptures in the "The Iron Age". As we approach
the end of the 20th century both Native Americans, Mayans, and Incans, prophecies
claim that we are coming to the end of an age. 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 "Ancient Vimana Aircraft" - a Contribution by John Burrows, he writes:

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.

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

"The Puspaka car that resembles the Sun and belongs to my brother was brought by
the powerful Ravan; 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."

In the Mahabharatra, an ancient Indian poem of enormous length, we learn that an

individual named Asura Maya had a Vimana measuring twelve cubits in circumference,
with four strong wheels. The poem is a veritable gold mine of information relating
to conflicts betweengods who settled their differences apparently using weapons as
lethal as the ones we are capable of deploying. Apart from ’blazing missiles’, the
poem records the use of other deadly weapons. ’Indra’s Dart’ 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 particular 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 splendor. 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."

Vimana
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 so burnt that their corpses were
unidentifiable. The survivors fared little etter, as it caused their hair and nails
to fall out.

Vimana
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.

In the Sanskrit Samarangana Sutradhara, 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 mecrcury 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."

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.

Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology

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.

Vimana
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.

The 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, culled 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 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.

Vimana
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 Shastra, 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
lightening and how to switch the drive to "solar energy" from a free energy source
which sounds like "anti-gravity."

Rukma Vimana
The » Vaimanika Shastra (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 hangar, 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 forewards
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. Writings 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: Easter Island! Writing on Easter Island, called Rongo-Rongo writing, is also
undeciphered, and is uncannily similar to the Mohenjodaro script.

Was Easter Island an air base for the Rama Empire's Vimana route? (At the Mohenjo-
Daro Vimana-drome, as the passenger walks down the concourse, he hears the sweet,
melodic sound of the announcer over the loudspeaker,

"Rama Airways flight number seven for Bali, Easter Island, Nazca, and Atlantis is
now ready for boarding. Passengers please proceed to gate number..") in Tibet, no
small distance, and speaks of the "fiery chariot" thusly: "Bhima flew along in his
car, resplendent as the sun and loud as thunder... The flying chariot shone like a
flame in the night sky of summer ... it swept by like a comet... It was as if two
suns were shining. Then the chariot rose up and all the heaven brightened."

In the Mahavira of Bhavabhuti, a Jain text of the eighth century culled from older
texts and traditions, we read:

"An aerial chariot, the Pushpaka, conveys many people to the capital of Ayodhya.
The sky is full of stupendous flying-machines, dark as night, but picked out by
lights with a yellowish glare"

The Vedas, ancient Hindu poems, thought to be the oldest of all the Indian texts,
describe Vimanas of various shapes and sizes: the "ahnihotra-vimana" with two
engines, the "elephant-vimana" with more engines, and other types named after the
kingfisher, ibis and other animals.
Vimana
Unfortunately, Vimanas, like most scientific discoveries, were ultimately used for
war. Atlanteans used their flying machines, "Vailixi," a similar type of aircraft,
to literally try and subjugate the world, it would seem, if Indian texts are to be
believed.

Asvin
The Atlanteans, known as "Asvins" in the Indian writings, were apparently even more
advanced technologically than the Indians, and certainly of a more war-like
temperament.

Although no ancient texts on Atlantean Vailixi are known to exist, some information
has come down through esoteric, "occult" sources which describe their flying
machines. Similar, if not identical to Vimanas, Vailixiwere generally "cigar
shaped" and had the capability of maneuvering underwater as well as in the
atmosphere or even outer space. Other vehicles, like Vimanas, were saucer shaped,
and could apparently also be submerged.
According to Eklal Kueshana, author of "The Ultimate Frontier," in an article he
wrote in 1966, Vailixi were first developed in Atlantis 20,000 years ago, and the
most common ones are,

"saucershaped of generally trapezoidal cross-section with three hemispherical

engine pods on the underside."

"They use a mechanical antigravity device driven by engines developing

approximately 80,000 horse power."

The Ramayana, Mahabarata and other texts speak of the hideous war that took place,
some ten or twelve thousand years ago between Atlantis and Rama using weapons of
destruction that could not be imagined by readers until the second half of this
century.

The ancient Mahabharata, one of the sources on Vimanas, goes on to tell 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 splendor...

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..."

Vimana
It would seem 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.

When the Rishi City of Mohenjodaro was excavated by archeologists in the last
century, they found skeletons just 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 stone walls have literally been vitrified,
that is-fused together, can be found in India, Ireland, Scotland, France, Turkey
and other places. There is no logical explanation for the vitrification of stone
forts and cities, except from an atomic blast. Furthermore, 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!

Asvin Vimana
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 of years,
many of them would still be in use, as evidenced by Ashoka's "Nine Unknown Men" and
the Lhasa manuscript.

That secret societies or "Brotherhoods" of exceptional, "enlightened" human beings

would have preserved these inventions and the knowledge of science, history, etc.,
does not seem surprising. Many well known historical personages including Jesus,
Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Krishna, Zoroaster, Mahavira, Quetzalcoatl, Akhenaton,
Moses, and more recent inventors and of course many other people who will probably
remain anonymous, were probably members of such a secret organization.

It is interesting to note that when Alexander the Great invaded India more than two
thousand years ago, his historians chronicled that at one point they were attacked
by "flying, fiery shields" that dove at his army and frightened the cavalry. These
"flying saucers" did not use any atomic bombs or beam weapons on Alexander's army
however, perhaps out of benevolence, and Alexander went on to conquer India.

It has been suggested by many writers that these "Brotherhoods" keep some of their
Vimanas and Vailixi in secret caverns in Tibet or some other place is Central Asia,
and the Lop Nor Desert in western China is known to be the center of a great UFO
mystery. Perhaps it is here that many of the airships are still kept, in
underground bases much as the Americans, British and Soviets have built around the
world in the past few decades.

Still, not all UFO activity can be accounted for by old Vimanas making trips to the
Moon for some reason. Undoubtedly, some are from the Military Governments of the
world, and possibly even from other planets. Of course, many UFO sightings are
"swamp, gas, clouds, hoaxes, and hallucinations, while there is considerable
evidence that many UFO sightings, especially "kidnappings" and the like, are the
result of what is generally called "telepathic hypnosis." One common thread that
often runs between "Alien kidnappings," "sex with aliens," and other "close
encounters of a third kind" is a buzzing in the ears just before the encounter.
According to many well informed people, this is a sure sign of telepathic
hypnosis."

[ Source: » World Mysteries from The Anti-Gravity Handbook (Lost Science) by D.

Hatcher Childress) ]

Vimanas in Vedic Literature

UFOs and Vimanas
In supplying information about the advancements of Vedic science, the subject of
Vedic airplanes, vimanas, is almost in a classification of its own. Some of this
information is so amazing that for some people it may border science fiction.
Nonetheless, as we uncover and explain it, it provides serious food for thought.

First of all we need to understand that the Vedic conception of universal time is
divided into different periods. For example, a period called one day of Brahma is
equivalent to 4,320,000,000 of our years on earth. Brahma's night is equally as
long and there are 360 of such days and nights in one year of Brahma. Each day of
Brahma is divided into one thousand cycles of four yugas, namely Satya-yuga, Treta-
yuga, Dvapara-yuga, and finally the Kali-yuga, which is the yuga we are presently
experiencing. Satya-yuga lasts 1,728,000 years, and is an age of purity when all
residents live very long lives and can be fully developed in spiritual
understanding and mystical abilities and remarkable powers.

Some of these abilities, or mystic siddhis, include changing one's shape, becoming
very large or microscopically small, becoming very heavy or even weightless,
securing any desirable thing, becoming free of all desires, or even flying through
the sky to wherever one wanted to go on one's own volition. So at that time, the
need for mechanical flying machines was not necessary.

Borobudur
As the yugas continued, the purity of the people, along with their mystical
abilities, decreased by 25% in each age. The age of Treta-yuga lasts 1,296,000
years. During that age, the minds of humanity became more dense, and the ability
for understanding the higher spiritual principles of the Vedic path was also more
difficult. Naturally, the ability to fly through the sky by one's own power was
lost. After Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga lasts 864,000 years, and Kali-yuga lasts
432,000 years, of which 5,000 have now already passed. At the end of Kali-yuga, the
age of Satya-yuga starts again and the yugas continue through another cycle. One
thousand such cycles is one day of Brahma. Now that we are in Kali-yuga, almost all
spiritual understanding disappears, and whatever mystical abilities that remain are
almost insignificant.

Shakuna Vimana
It is explained that it was not until the beginning of Treta-yuga that the
development of vimanas took place. In fact, Lord Brahma, the chief demigod and
engineer of the universe, is said to have developed several vimanas for some of the
other demigods. These were in various natural shapes that incorporated the use of
wings, such as peacocks, eagles, swans, etc. Other vimanas were developed for the
wiser human beings by great seers of Vedic knowledge.

In the course of time, there were three basic types of vimanas. In Treta-yuga, men
were adept in mantras or potent hymns. Thus, the vimanas of that age were powered
by means of knowledge of mantras. In Dvapara-yuga, men had developed considerable
knowledge of tantra, or ritual. Thus, the vimanas of Dvapara-yuga were powered by
the use of tantric knowledge. In Kali-yuga, knowledge of both mantra and tantra are
deficient. Thus, the vimanas of this age are known as kritaka, artificial or
mechanical. In this way, there are three main types of vimanas, Vedic airplanes,
according to the characteristics of each yuga.

Of these three types, there is listed 25 variations of the mantrika vimanas, 56

variations of the tantrica vimanas, and 25 varieties of the kritakaah vimanas as we
find today in Kali-yuga. However, in regard to the shape and construction, there is
no difference between any of these vimanas, but only in how they were powered or
propelled, which would be by mantras, tantras, or mechanical engines.

The controversial text known as » Vaimanika Shastra (Vymaanika-Shaastra) , said to

be by Maharshi Bharadwaja, also describes in detail the construction of what is
called the mercury vortex engine. This is no doubt of the same nature as the Vedic
Ion engine that is propelled by the use of mercury. Such an engine was built by »
Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, based on descriptions in the Rig-veda, which he
demonstrated in Mumbai (Bombay), India in 1895.

One western scholar of Indology Stephen-Knapp has tried to explain what » Shivkur
Bapuji Talpade did. According to Knapp, the Vaimanika Shastra describes in detail,
the construction of what is called, the mercury vortex engine the forerunner of the
ion engines being made today.
Additional information on the mercury engines used in the vimanas can be found in
the ancient Vedic text called the Samarangana Sutradhara. This text also devotes
230 verses to the use of these machines in peace and war. We will not provide the
whole description of the mercury vortex engine here, but we will include a short
part of William Clendenon's translation of the Samarangana Sutradhara from his 1990
book, Mercury, UFO Messenger of the Gods:

"Inside the circular air frame, place the mercury-engine with its
electric/ultrasonic mercury boiler at the bottom center. 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 in a most marvelous manner. Four
strong mercury containers must be built into the interior structure. When those
have been heated by controlled fire from iron containers, the vimana develops
thunder-power through the mercury. At once it becomes like a pearl in the sky."

This provides a most simplistic idea of the potential of the mercury engines. This
is one kind of a propulsion mechanism that the vimanas of Kali-yuga may use. Other
variations are also described. Not only do these texts contain directions on how to
make such engines, but they also have been found to contain flight manuals, aerial
routes, procedures for normal and forced landings, instructions regarding the
condition of the pilots, clothes to wear while flying, the food to bring and eat,
spare parts to have, metals of which the craft needs to be made, power supplies,
and so on. Other texts also provide instructions on avoiding enemy craft, how to
see and hear what occupants are saying in enemy craft, how to become invisible, and
even what tactics to use in case of collisions with birds. Some of these vimanas
not only fly in the sky, but can also maneuver on land and fly into the sea and
travel under water.

There are many ancient Vedic texts that describe or contain references to these
vimanas, including the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Rig-veda, Yajur-veda, Atharva-veda,
the Yuktilkalpataru of Bhoja (12th century A.D.), the Mayamatam (attributed to the
architect Maya), plus other classic Vedic texts like the Satapathya Brahmana,
Markandeya Purana, Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, the Harivamsa, the
Uttararamcarita, the Harsacarita, the Tamil text Jivakacintamani, and others. From
the various descriptions in these writings, we find vimanas in many different
shapes, including that of long cigars, blimp-like, saucer-shapes, triangular, and
even double-decked with portholes and a dome on top of a circular craft. Some are
silent, some belch fire and make noise, some have a humming noise, and some
disappear completely.

Shakuna Vimana
These various descriptions are not unlike the reports of UFOs that are seen today.
In fact, David Childress, in his book Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India & Atlantis,
provides many reports, both recent and from the last few hundred years, that
describe eye witness accounts of encounters with UFOs that are no different in size
and shape than those described in these ancient Vedic texts. Plus, when the pilots
are seen close up, either fixing their craft or stepping outside to look around,
they are human-like, sometimes with a Oriental appearance, in clothes that are
relatively modern in style. In other reports, we have read where the craft may have
alien type beings on board along with ordinary humans navigating the craft.

Does this mean that these are ancient vimanas that still exist today? Are they
stored in some underground caverns somewhere? Or are they simply modern-built,
using the ancient designs as described in the Vedic texts? The UFOs that have been
seen around the world may not be from some distant galaxy, but may be from a secret
human society, or even military installation. However, many of the Vedic texts do
describe interplanetary travel. So even if these space machines are from some other
planet, they may be using the same principles of propulsion that have already been
described in the universal Vedic literature. The answer awaits us.
[ Source: » Stephen Knapp ]

Vimanas in Sanskrit literature

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. Behind all these ‘literary’ description there is something more,
exist a real technological background lost in the time but also passed throughout
ages as an oral tradition. We have founded some quotations from classical Sanskrit
literature, verses we had chosen specifically to illustrate the visual appearance,
nature and capabilities generally ascribed to these ancient fabulous vehicles
known.

“Having spoken thus, Maharaja Nirga made a complete circle around Lord Krishna and
touched his crown to the Lord’s feet. Granted permission to depart, King Nirga then
boarded a wonderful celestial car as all the people looked on.” (Bhagavata Purana)

“While Dhruva Maharaja was passing through space, he saw, in succession, all the
planets of the solar system, and on the path he saw all the demigods in their
vimanas showering flowers upon him like rain.” (Bhagavata Purana)

“He traveled in that way through the various planets, as the air passes freely in
every direction. Coursing through the air in that grand and splendid vimana, which
could fly at will, he surpassed even the Devas.” (Bhagavata Purana)

“Then the highly intelligent Asura Maya built the cities . . . There were many
palaces with gems. Aerial cars shining like the sun, set with Padmaraga stones,
moving in all directions and looking like moonbeams, illuminated the cities.” (Siva
Purana)

“When morning dawned, Rama, taking the Celestial Car Puspaka had sent to him by
Vivpishand, stood ready to depart. Self-propelled was that car. It was large and
finely painted. It had two stories and many chambers with windows, and was draped
with flags and banners. It gave forth a melodious sound as it coursed along its
airy way.” (Ramayana)

“The Puspaka Car, that resembles the sun and belongs to my brother, was brought by
the powerful Ravan; that aerial and excellent car, going everywhere at will, is
ready for thee. That car, resembling a bright cloud in the sky, is in the city of
Lanka.” (Ramayana)

“Beholding the car coming by force of will Rama attained to an excess of

astonishment. And the king got in, and the excellent car, at the command of
Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere. And in that car, coursing at will,
Rama greatly delighted.” (Ramayana)

Krishna Chariot
“When the Daityas were being slaughtered they again took to their vimana and,
employing the Danava science, flew up into the sky . . . I (Arjuna) assaulted their
vimana . . . Wounded by the flight of deadly-accurate iron missiles, the Asura
vimana fell broken to the earth . . . Matali swiftly descended earthward, as in a
steep dive, on our divinely effulgent car.” (Mahabharata)

Krishna Chariot
“Karna took up that fierce weapon, which resembled the tongue of the Destroyer or
the Sister of Death. That terrible and effulgent dart, Naikartana, was hurled at
the Rakshasa. Beholding that excellent and blazing weapon . . . the Rakshasa began
to fly away in fear . . . Destroying that blazing illusion of Ghatotkacha and
piercing right through his breast that resplendent dart soared aloft in the night .
. . Ghatotkacha, then uttering diverse roars, fell, deprived of life by the dart of
Sakra.” (Mahabharata)

“The vimana had all necessary equipment. It could not be conquered by the gods or
demons. And it radiated light and reverberated with a deep rumbling sound. Its
beauty captivated the minds of all who beheld it. Visvakarma, the lord of its
design and construction, had created it by the power of his austerities, and its
outline, like that of the sun, could not be easily delineated. (Mahabharata)

“And he also gave [unto Arjuna] a car furnished with celestial weapons whose banner
bore a large ape . . . And its splendour, like that of the Sun, was so great that
no one could gaze at it. It was the very car riding upon which the lord Soma had
vanquished the Danavas. Resplendent with beauty, it looked like an evening cloud
reflecting the effulgence of the setting Sun.” (Mahabharata)

“Bhima flew along in his car, resplendent as the sun and loud as thunder . . . The
flying chariot shone like a flame in the night sky of summer . . . it swept by like
a comet . . . It was if two suns were shining. Then the chariot rose up and all the
heavens brightened.” (Mahabharata)

“And on this sunlike, divine, wonderful chariot the wise disciple of Kuru flew
joyously upward. When becoming invisible to the mortals who walk the earth, he saw
wondrous airborne chariots by the thousands.” (Mahabharata)

“And the celebrated Arjuna, having passed through successive regions of the
heavens, at last beheld the city of Indra. And there he beheld celestial cars by
thousands stationed in their respective places [an airport?] and capable of going
everywhere at will, and he saw tens of thousands of such cars moving in every
direction.” (Mahabharata)

“And having vanquished his foe, Krishna furnished with weapons and unwounded and
accompanied by the kings, came out of Girivraja riding on that celestial car . . .
upon that car Krishna now came out of the hill-fort. Possessed of the splendour of
heated gold, and decked with rows of jingling bells . . . always slaughtering the
foe against whom it was driven, it was the very car riding upon which Indra had
slain ninety-nine Asuras of old.” (Mahabharata)

“And thereupon that best of cars became still more dazzling with its splendour and
was incapable of being looked at by created beings, as the midday sun surrounded by
a thousand rays . . . And Achyuta, that tiger among men, riding with the two sons
of Pandu upon that celestial car . . . coming out of Girivraja, stopped (for some
time) on a level plain outside of town.” (Mahabharata)

“We beheld in the sky what appeared to us to be a mass of scarlet cloud resembling
the fierce flames of a blazing fire. From that mass many blazing missiles flashed,
and tremendous roars, like the noise of a thousand drums beaten at once. And from
it fell many weapons winged with gold and thousands of thunderbolts, with loud
explosions, and many hundreds of fiery wheels. Loud became the uproar of falling
horses, slain by these missiles, and of mighty elephants struck by the explosions .
. . Those terrible Rakshasas had the shape of large mounds stationed in the sky.”
(Mahabharata)

“Vimanas, decked and equipped according to rule, looked like heavenly structures in
the sky . . . borne away they looked like highly beautiful flights of birds.
(Mahabharata)

“Gifted with great energy the Rakshasa once more came down to Earth in his golden
vimana . . . when it had landed it looked like a beautifully shaped mound of
antimony on the surface of the ground.” (Ghatotrachabadma)

“The splendid chariot, made of silver and coated with tiger-skin, and bright like
the fire itself, making a noise like the roaring of the clouds; defying all
obstacles, adorned with jewels and gold, dazzling to the eyesight and bright . . .
went speedily on, making space resound like unto the muttering cloud in the sky. He
issued out of his abode like the beautiful moon passing through a huge cloud.”
(Ayodhya Kandam, XVI, pp. 235-236)

Krishna Chariot
King Yudhishthira’s Ascent to Heaven

From Protap Chandra Roy’s translation of the Mahabharata)

Puspaka Vimana
“Causing the heaven and the earth to be filled by a loud sound, then Indra came to
Yudhishthira on a car and asked him to ascend it.

“Seeing his brothers fallen on the earth, King Yudhishthira the just said to that
deity of a thousand eyes these words: ‘My brothers have all dropped down here! They
must go with me. Without them by me, I do not wish to go to the celestial region, O
lord of all the celestials. The delicate princess Draupadi, deserving of every
comfort, should go with us! You should permit this.’

“Indra answered, ‘You shall behold your brothers in the celestial region. They have
reached it before you. Indeed, you shall see all of them there, with Krishna. Do
not give way to grief, O chief of the Bharatas! Having renounced their human bodies
they have gone there, O chief of the Bharata race! As for you, it is ordained that
you shall go there in this very body of yours.’”

[After a long debate between the two the following occurs.]

“Then Dharma and Indra and the other deities, causing Yudhishthira to ascend on a
car, went to the celestial region. Those beings crowned with success and capable of
going everywhere at will, rode their respective cars. King Yudhishthira, riding on
his car, ascended quickly, causing the entire sky to blaze with his effulgence.”

“Steeds and Wheels”

In both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana the researcher encounters the rather
puzzling use of “steeds” and “wheels” (necessary componants of the conventional
ground-bound war chariot). But why use such terminology when describing aerial
vehicles? At first, this was a little baffling — after all, flying asses yoked to
an airship?

These seemingly incongruous elements may be nothing more than the result of strong
Hindu tendencies to allegorize, as well as translators who were sadly lacking in
technological savvy and vocabulary. First let’s consider the application of the
term “wheels” to the aircraft known as vimanas. In the Mahabharata one discovers
this enigmatic passage:

“Indra’s vimana endued with great effulgence and driven by Matali, came dividing
the clouds and illuminating the firmament, filling the entire sky with its roar . .
. also propellers furnished with wheels, working with atmospheric expansion,
producing sounds loud as the roar of great masses of clouds. . . Indra’s vimana was
whisked along with such speed that the eye could scarcely follow.” (Vana Parva,
Sec. xlii)
Let me draw attention to the phrase “propellers furnished with wheels, working with
atmospheric expansion.” This is the way a modern jet engine works: pulling in fresh
air using impeller blades, expanding the air by heating it, then directing it
through more blades, which turn a shaft connected to the forward turbines, which
packs in more air. If we substitute “impellers” for propellers and “turbines” for
wheels—both more modern terms—it begins to make a great deal of sense.

Ancient drawings of these machines actually portray turbines and expansion chambers
similar in some ways to our modern jet engines. So, at this point let me suggest
that in many cases the Sanskrit word chakrashould be translated “turbine” rather
than “wheel,” without doing violence to the Sanskrit.

The ancient Aryans of India tended to allegorize a lot, making it difficult to look
at their propulsion systems from our scientific point of view. Often the vimanas
were said to be drawn through the sky by “celestial steeds” (whether horses, swans,
asses, or elephants). What means this?

No doubt some of these descriptions are not allegories, but are presented in such a
manner because the propulsion units were deliberately constructed to resemble these
animals! The following passage illustrates this clearly describes:

“A huge and terrible black vimana made of black iron, it was 400 yojanas high and
as many wide, equipped with engines set in their proper places. No steeds nor
elephants propelled it. Instead it was driven by machines that looked like
elephants.” (Ghatotrachabadma)

Shakuna Vimana
In many other cases they may be using such terms as a blind, deliberately covering
up the true nature of the form of propulsion utilized. The word “celestial” may be
included merely to cue the informed reader that the following term is not to be
taken in its mundane, or “earthly,” sense. One particular text states emphatically:
“Manufacturing details of these machines are withheld for the sake of secrecy, not
out of ignorance.”(Samarangana Sutradhara)

*This is always the case in P. C. Roy’s translation of the Mahabharata(i.e., if a

passage contains the word “vimana,” it is from one of the alternate sources listed
in the bibliography below). All excerpts from theRamayana are from Manatha Nath
Dutt’s translation (who uses the term “vimana”). The Puranas are from Dr. Richard
L. Thompson’s work “Alien Identities”.

[ Source: » Vaimanika - VIMANAS in Sanskrit literature) by Enrico Baccarini) ]

In one episode, for example, the Vrishnis, a tribe whose warriors include the hero
Krishna, are beset by the forces of a leader named Salva.

"The cruel Salva had come mounted on the Saubha chariot that can go anywhere, and
from it he killed many valiant Vrishni youths and evilly devastated all city
parks."

The Saubha is at once Salva's city, flagship, and battle headquarters. In it, he
can fly wherever he chooses. Fortunately, the Vrishni heroes are similarly well
equipped, and at one point have Salva at their mercy. The hero Pradyumna is about
to finish him off with a special weapon, when the highest gods stop him "Not a man
in battle is safe from this arrow," they say, and declare that Salva will fall to
Krishna.

Krishna took to the sky in pursuit of Salva, but his Saubha clung to the sky at a
leagues length... He threw at me rockets, missiles, spears, spikes, battleaxes,
three-bladed javelins, flame-throwers, without pausing... The sky... seemed to hold
a hundred suns, a hundred moons... and a hundred myriad stars. Neither day nor
night could be made out, or the points of a compass.

Krishna, however, wards off Salva's attack with what sounds like antiballistic
missiles; I warded them off as they loomed towards me.

With my swift-striking shafts, as they flashed through the sky, And I cut them into
two or three pieces with mine -- There was a great din in the sky above. However,
the Saubha becomes invisible. Krishna then loads a special weapon, perhaps an
ancient version of a smart bomb? I quickly laid on an arrow, which killed by
seeking out sound, to kill them... All the Danavas [Salva's troops] who had been
screeching lay dead, killed by the blazing sun like arrows that were triggered by
sound.

Krishna Chariot
However, the Saubha itself escaped the attack. Krishna fires his "favorite fire
weapon" at it, a discus shaped like the "haloed sun". The discus breaks the Saubha
in two, and the city falls from the sky, killing Salva. This is the end of the
Mahabharata. One of the most intriguing thing about it is that the use of
Pradyumna's special arrow, from which "not a man in battle is safe", was outlawed
by the gods. What sort of weapon could this be?

Sundara Vimana
Another chapter, describing the use of the Agneya weapon by the hero Adwattan.

When the weapon, a "blazing missile of smokeless fire" is unleashed; dense arrows
of flame, like a great shower, issued forth upon creation, encompassing the
enemy... A thick gloom swiftly settled upon the Pandava hosts. All points of the
compass were lost in darkness. Fierce winds began to blow. Clouds roared upward,
showering dust and gravel. Birds coked madly... the very elements seemed disturbed.
The sun seemed to waver in the heavens. The earth shook, scorched by the terrible
violent heat of this weapon. Elephants burst into flame and ran to and fro in a
frenzy... over a vast area, other animals crumpled to the ground and died. From all
points of the compass the arrows of flame rained continuously and fiercely.

And if that sounded like a firestorm, then a similar weapon fired by Gurkha sounds
like nothing less than a nuclear blast complete with radioactive fallout;

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 thousand suns, rose
in all its splendor. It was the unknown weapon, the iron thunderbolt, a gigantic
messenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race of Vrishnis and Andhakas.

The corpses were so burnt they were no longer recognizable. Hair and nails fell
out. Pottery broke without cause... Foodstuffs were poisoned.

To escape, the warriors threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their
equipment.

Unknown alloys have been revealed in the ancient palm leaf manuscripts too. The
writer and Sanskrit scholar Subramanyam Iyer has spent many years of his life
deciphering old collections of palm leaves found in the villages of his native
Karnataka in southern India. One of the palm leaf manuscripts they intend to
decipher is the Amsu Bodhini, which, according to an anonymous text of 1931,
contains information about the planets; the different kinds of light, heat, color,
and electromagnetic fields; the methods used to construct machines capable of
attracting solar rays and, in turn, of analyzing and separating their energy
components; the possibility of conversing with people in remote places and sending
messages by cable; and the manufacture of machines to transport people to other
planets!

[ Source : Biblioteca Pleyades - "Ancient Writings tell of UFO visit 4.000 B.C." by
John Burrows {Hungarian translation} ] ]

Vaimanika Shastra
The » Vaimānika Shāstra वैमानिक शास्त्र ("Science of Aeronautics" ; also Vimanika,
Vymanika) is an early 20th century Sanskrit text on aeronautics, claimed to be
obtained by mental channeling, about construction ofvimānas, the "chariots of the
Gods", self-moving aerial cars mentioned in the Sanskrit epics.

The existence of the text was revealed in 1952 by G. R. Josyer, according to whom
it is due to one Pandit Subbaraya Shastry, who dictated it in 1918-1923. A Hindi
translation was published in 1959, the Sanskrit text with an English translation in
1973. It has 3000 shlokas in 8 chapters and was attributed by Shastry to Maharishi
Bharadvaja, which makes it of purportedly "ancient" origin, and hence it has a
certain notability in ancient astronaut theories.

Unlike modern treatises on aeronautics that begin by discussing the general

principles of flight before detailing concepts of aircraft design, the Vaimanika
Shastra straightaway gets into quantitative description, as though a particular
aircraft is being described. The topics covered include, "definition of an
airplane, a pilot, aerial routes, food, clothing, metals, metal production, mirrors
and their uses in wars, varieties of machinery and yantras, planes like ‘mantrik’,
‘tantrik’, and ‘kritak’" and four planes called Shakuna, Sundara, Rukma, and
Tripura are described in greater detail. The extant text is claimed to be only a
small (one-fortieth) part of a larger work Yantra Sarvaswa ("All about machines)
composed by Maharishi Bharadwaj and other sages for the "benefit of all mankind".

In 1991, the English portion and the illustrations from the Josyer book were
reprinted by David Hatcher Childress in Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India & Atlantis
as part of the Lost Science Series. According to Childress, the 8 chapters treat
the following:

Vimanika Shastra
The secrets of constructing aeroplanes, which will not break, which cannot be cut,
will not catch fire, and cannot be destroyed.
The secret of making planes motionless.
The secret of making planes invisible.
The secret of hearing conversations and other sounds in enemy places.
The secret of retrieving photographs of the interior of enemy planes
The secret of ascertaining the direction of enemy planes approach.
The secret of making persons in enemy planes lose consciousness.
The secret of destroying enemy planes.
The propulsion of the Vimanas according to Kanjilal (1985) is by a "Mercury Vortex
Engines", apparently a concept similar to electric propulsion. Childress finds
evidence for this "mercury vortex engine" in the Samarangana Sutradhara, an 11th
century treatise on architecture.

J. B. Hare of the Internet Sacred Text Archive in 2005 compiled an online edition
of Josyer's 1973 book, in the site's "UFOs" section. In his introduction, Hare
writes
The Vymanika Shastra was first committed to writing between 1918 and 1923, and
nobody is claiming that it came from some mysterious antique manuscript. The fact
is, there are no manuscripts of this text prior to 1918, and nobody is claiming
that there are. So on one level, this is not a hoax. You just have to buy into the
assumption that 'channeling' works. ... there is no exposition of the theory of
aviation (let alone antigravity). In plain terms, the VS never directly explains
how Vimanas get up in the air. The text is top-heavy with long lists of often
bizarre ingredients used to construct various subsystems. ... There is nothing here
which Jules Verne couldn't have dreamed up, no mention of exotic elements or
advanced construction techniques. The 1923 technical illustration based on the text
... are absurdly un-aerodynamic. They look like brutalist wedding cakes, with
minarets, huge ornithopter wings and dinky propellers. In other words, they look
like typical early 20th century fantasy flying machines with an Indian twist.

A 1974 study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore found

that the heavier-than-air aircraft that the Vaimanika Shastra described were
aeronautically unfeasible. The authors remarked that the discussion of the
principles of flight in the text were largely perfunctory and incorrect, in some
cases violating Newton's laws of motion. The study concluded:

Any reader by now would have concluded the obvious – that the planes described
above are the best poor concoctions, rather than expressions of something real.
None of the planes has properties or capabilities of being flown; the geometries
are unimaginably horrendous from the point of view of flying; and the principles of
propulsion make them resist rather than assist flying. The text and the drawings do
not correlate with each other even thematically. The drawings definitely point to a
knowledge of modern machinery. This can be explained on the basis of the fact that
Shri Ellappa who made the drawings was in a local engineering college and was thus
familiar with names and details of some machinery. Of course the text retains a
structure in language and content from which its 'recent nature' cannot be
asserted. We must hasten to point out that this does not imply an oriental nature
of the text at all. All that may be said is that thematically the drawings ought to
be ruled out of discussion. And the text, as it stands, is incomplete and ambiguous
by itself and incorrect at many places.

The authors expressed puzzlement at the contradiction and errors in the Vaimanika
Shastra text, especially since its compilers supposedly had access to publications
that did not make such errors (such as, Dayanand Saraswati's commentary on the
Rigveda published in 1878 or earlier).

[ Source: » Wikipedia ]

Ancient Indian Vimanas and Modern Mercury Vortex Technology

This article deals with vimanas that are running on a mercury vortex propulsion
system. This system is developed by, created by Bill Clendenon, an inventor of the
mercury vortex propulsion system. Clendenon explains that the vimana was an ancient
Indian aircraft, mention in variuous Vedic scriptures. This was a machine driven by
a now unconventional manner. The mercury vortex propulsion engine.

The workings of the mercury vortex technology

David hatcher Childress has explained a bit further, the theory of the mercury
vortex technology. I will quote it here in full:

Atlantean Vimanika
The electromagnetic field coil, which consists of the closed circuit exchanger /
condenser coil circuit containing the liquid metal mercury and / or its hot vapor,
is placed with its core axis vertical to the craft.

A ring conductor (directional gyro-armature) is placed around the field coil (heat
exchanger) windings so that the core of the vertical heat exchanger coils protrudes
through the center of the ring conductor.

When the electromagnet (heat exchanger coils) is energized, the ring conductor is
instantly shot into the air, taking the craft as a complete unit along with it.

If the current is controlled by a computerized resistance, (rheostat), the ring

conductor armature and craft can be made to hover or float in the Earth's
atmosphere.

The electromagnet hums and the armature ring (or torus) becomes quite hot. In fact,
if the electrical current is high enough, the ring will glow dull red or rust
orange with heat.

The phenomenon (outward sign of a working law of nature) is brought about by an

induced current effect identical with an ordinary transformer.

As the repulsion between the electromagnet and the ring conductor is mutual, one
can imagine the craft being affected and responding to the repulsion phenomenon as
a complete unit.

Lift or repulsion is generated because of close proximity of the field magnet to

the ring conductor. Clendenon says that lift would always be opposed to the
gravitational pull of the planet Earth, but repulsion can also be employed to cause
fore and aft propulsion.'
[ David Hatcher Childress (2000), p.180]

The basic turbo-pump engine has four main sections: compressor, combustion, or
heating chambers, turbo-pump and exhaust. Burning gases are exhausted through the
turbo-pump wheel to generate power to turn the electric generator:

Propellant tanks will be filled with liquid air (obtained directly from the
atmosphere by on-board reduction equipment).

Liquid air may be injected into expansion chambers and heated by the metal working-
fluid mercury confined in a boiler coupled to a heat exchanger.

The super heated M.H.D. plasma (or air) will expand through propellant cooled
nozzles.

The ship may recharge its propellant tanks with liquid air and condensate water
collected directly from the upper atmosphere by the on-board reducing plant.

Important is that this mercury vortex propulsion model is intented for terrestrial
flight only. The strange ball of light that is often seen by UFO like craft, is the
ball of light that surrounds a craft is: the magneto-hydrodynamic plasma, a hot
continuously recirculating air flow through the ship's gas turbine which is ionized
(electrically conducting). Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is described by Childress as
an ionized gas that is passed through a magnetic field to generate electricity.
(Childress (2000), p.182)

This effect of the ball of light makes the craft to appear alive and breathing.
The reason why ships disappear from view is according to Clendenon: The ionized
bubble of air surrounding the UFO may be controlled by a computerized rheostat so
the ionization of the air may shift through every color of the spectrum, obscuring
the aircraft from view. (Childress (2000), p. 181)

Atlantean Vimanika
Here is a scientific view on the socalled invisiblility of aerial craft. All these
ideas are taken from an ancient manuscript the Vimaana Shaastra. In this manuscript
there are many detailed characteristists about what could very possible have been
mercury vortex generators. These mercury vortex generators could have been used in
various types of vimanas.

Dangers of mercury vortex propulsion

Clendenon points out the danger of this mercury vortex propulsion system. When the
liquid metal mercury is heated, it gives forth a hot vapor. This hot vapour is
deadly poisonous, because; '... if the liquid metal mercury is made radioactive and
heated sufficiently to emit radiation, any leaks in the mercury would, therefore,
be a double danger to the crew and maintenance personnel of any vehicle powered by
a mercury vapor turbine.'(Quoted from the book by Bill Clendenon and David Hatcher
Childress, Mercury: UFO Messengers of the Gods, 1990, p. 85)

[ Source: » Illuminatinet ] - [Get more information at: The Occult Hyper Space
Program ]

Secrets of the Vimana

(This article collects various citations about the vimanas from a large number of
different sources)

The Ancient Legends

(1) An Overview of the Literature

"In various kinds of Asian and South Asian texts, we find references to flying
machines and aerial vehicles. Chinese and Indian stories tell of peoples or
individual artisans who constructed devices for travelling through the air. The
stories take many different forms, including quite fanciful romances. Others
present a picture of inventors taking pains to understand the basic principles of
flight, and crafting machines of wood to achieve this goal."

[ Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private Descriptions of Flying

Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Other Texts" (draft copy) ]

Shakuna Vimana
The word vimana is purportedly derived from vamana: "he who is able at three
strides to take measure of the entire earth and heavens."

"In the Vedic literature of India, there are many descriptions of flying machines
that are generally called vimanas. These fall into two categories: (1) manmade
craft that resemble airplanes and fly with the aid of birdlike wings, and (2)
unstreamlined structures that fly in a mysterious manner and are generally not made
by human beings. The machines in category (1) are described mainly in medieval,
secular Sanskrit works dealing with architecture, automata, military siege engines,
and other mechanical contrivances. Those in category (2) are described in ancient
works such as the Rg Veda, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Puranas, and they
have many features reminiscent of UFOs."

[ Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities- Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Phenomena
]

"One time while King Citaketu was traveling in outer space on a brilliantly
effulgent airplane given to him by Lord Vishnu, he saw Lord Siva..."

"The arrows released by Lord Siva appeared like fiery beams emanating from the sun
globe and covered the three residential airplanes, which could then no longer be
seen."

[ Srimad Bhagasvatam, Sixth Canto, Part 3]

"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...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')."

[ D. Hatcher Childress, "Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology" ]

In The Anti-Gravity Handbook

"An aerial chariot, the Pushpaka, conveys many people to the capital of Ayodhya.
The sky is full of stupendous flying-machines, dark as night,but picked out by
lights with a yellowish glare."

[ Mahavira of Bhavabhuti (A Jain text of the eighth century culled from older
texts and traditions)]

"The Vedas, ancient Hindu poems, thought to be the oldest of all the Indian texts,
describe vimanas of various shapes and sizes: the 'ahnihotra-vimana' with two
engines, the 'elephant-vimana' with more engines, and other types named after the
kingfisher, ibis and other animals."
- D. Hatcher Childress, "Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology"

In The Anti-Gravity Handbook

"Now Vata's chariot's greatness! Breaking goes it,

And Thunderous is its noise,
To heaven it touches,
Makes light lurid [a red fiery glare], and whirls dust upon the earth."
[ Rig-Veda (Vata is the Aryan god of wind.) ]

Shakuna Vimana
"Taoist tales often tell of adepts or immortals flying through the air. The xian
were immortals capable of flight under their own divine power. They were said to be
feathered, and a term that has been used for Taoist priests is yu ke, meaning
'feathered guest'. The fei tian, which might be translated as 'flying immortals',
also appear in early tales, adding to the numbers of airborne beings in the Chinese
mythological corpus."

"The Chinese tales of fei che, flying vehicles, exhibit the first understanding,
perhaps, that humans would fly only with some kind of technological apparatus. A
hymn written in the second century B.C. speaks of deity appearing in chariots drawn
by flying dragons."
[Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private Descriptions of Flying
Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Other Texts" (draft copy)]

(2) The Mahabharata

"The more typical vimanas had flight characteristics resembling those reported for
UFOs, and the being associated with them were said to possess powers similar to
those presently ascribed to UFO entities. An interesting example of a vimana is the
flying machine which Salva, an ancient Indian king, acquired from Maya Danava, an
inhabitant of a planetary system called Taltala."

[ Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities- Ancient Insights into Modern UFO

Phenomena]

"The cruel Salva had come mounted on the Saubha chariot that can go anywhere, and
from it he killed many valiant Vrishni youths and evilly devastated all the city
parks."

[ Mahabharata]

Vimana - God War in the Sky

"The Mahabharata, a poem of vast length and complexity, achieved its present form
in the second century A.D."

[ Reader's Digest Mysteries of the Unexplained]

"It is significant that Salva asked for a vehicle that could not be destroyed by
Devas, Asuras, Gandharvas, Uragas, or Raksasas. These are all powerful races of
humanoid beings that were openly active on the earth or in its general environs in
Salva's time, and so naturally he wanted to be able to defend himself against them.

"Salva's vehicle is described as an iron city, and thus it must have been metallic
in appearance and quite large....Many Vedic vimanas are described as flying cities,
and one is reminded of the very large 'mother-ships' that are sometimes discussed
in UFO reports."

[ Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities- Ancient Insights into Modern UFO

Phenomena]

Shakuna Vimana
"The airplane occupied by Salva was very mysterious. It was so extraordinary that
sometimes many airplanes would appear to be in the sky, and sometimes there were
apparently none. Sometimes the plane was visible and sometimes not visible, and the
warriors of the Yadu dynasty were puzzled about the whereabouts of the peculiar
airplane. Sometimes they would see the airplane on the ground, sometimes flying in
the sky, sometimes resting on the peak of a hill and sometimes floating on the
water. The wonderful airplane flew in the sky like a whirling firebrand - it was
not steady even for a moment."

[ Bhaktivedanta, Swami Prabhupada, Krsna ]

"An Air Force RB-47, equipped with electronic countermeasure (ECM) gear and manned
by six officers, was followed by an unidentified object for a distance of well over
700 mi. and for a time period of 1.5 hr., as it flew from Mississippi, through
Louisiana and Texas and into Oklahoma. The object was, at various times, seen
visually by the cockpit crew as an intensely luminous light, followed by ground-
radar and detected on ECM monitoring gear aboard the RB-47. Of special interest in
this case are several instances of simultaneous appearances and disappearances on
all three of these physically distinct 'channels', and rapidity of maneuvers beyond
the prior experience of the air crew."

[ July 17, 1957 sighting reported in the journal Astronautics and Aeronautics ]

"It is significant that Salva dropped such things as snakes, stones, and tree
trunks from his vimana. There is no mention of bombs, and it would seem that even
though Salva possessed a remarkable flying machine, he did not have the kind of
aerial weapons technology used in World War II. He did, however, have a quite
different technology, which could be used to affect the weather and produce
whirlwinds, thunderbolts, and hailstones."

[Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities- Ancient Insights into Modern UFO

Phenomena ]

There is this account by the hero Krishna that is suggestive of more modern
weapons. As he takes to the skies in pursuit of Salva:

"His Saubha clung to the sky at a league's length...He threw at me rockets,

missiles, spears, spikes, battle-axes, three-bladed javelins, flame-throwers,
without pausing....The sky...seemed to hold a hundred suns, a hundred moons...and a
hundred myriad stars. Neither day nor night could be made out, or the points of
compass."

[ The Mahabharata ]

Later, when Saubha becomes invisible, Krishna relates:

"I quickly laid on an arrow, which killed by seeking out sound, to kill them...All
the Danavas [troops in Salva's army] who had been screeching lay dead, killed by
the blazing sunlike arrows that were triggered by sound."

[ The Mahabharata ]

"But the Saubha itself has escaped the attack, and at last Krishna hurls against it
his 'favorite fire weapon', a discus having the shape of the 'haloed sun'. Severed
in two by the impact, the aerial city falls down.

"Salva himself is killed, and with his death this episode of The Mahabharata comes
to an end."

[ Reader's Digest Mysteries of the Unexplained ]

Sudarshan Chakra
In another episode the fearful Agneya weapon, "a blazing missile of smokeless fire"
is unleashed by the hero Adwattan.

Sudarshan Chakra
"Dense arrows of flame, like a great shower, issued forth upon creation,
encompassing the enemy....A thick gloom swiftly settled upon the Pandava hosts. All
points of the compass were lost in darkness. Fierce winds began to blow. Clouds
roared upward, showering dust and gravel.
"Birds croaked madly...the very elements seemed disturbed. The sun seemed to waver
in the heavens. The earth shook, scorched by the terrible violent heat of this
weapon. Elephants burst into flame and ran to and fro in a frenzy...over a vast
area, other animals crumpled to the ground and died. From all points of the compass
the arrows of flame rained continuously and fiercely."
"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 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..."

[ The Mahabharata ]

"It would seem 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.

"When the Rishi City of Mohenjodaro was excavated by archaeologists in the last
century, they found skeletons just 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."

"Futhermore, 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! "

[ D. Hatcher Childress, "Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology" ]

Sudarshan Chakra
In The Anti-Gravity Handbook

There is another account of such a weapon:

"Cuka, flying on board a high-powered vimana, hurled on to the triple city a single
projectile charged with all the power of the universe. An incandescent column of
smoke and flame, as bright as ten thousand suns, rose in all the splendor... When
the vimana returned to Earth, it looked like a splendid block of antimony resting
on the ground."

[ Mausola Purva ]

An Examination of the Technology

(1) The Dreamlike Quality of Vimanas
"O King, this beautifully decorated airplane had been manufactured by the demon
Maya and was equipped with weapons for all types of combat. It was inconceivable
and indescribable. Indeed, it was sometimes visible and sometimes not. Seated in
this airplane under a beautiful protective umbrella and being fanned by the best of
camaras, Maharaja Bai, surrounded by his captains and commanders, appeared just
like the moon rising in the evening, illuminating all directions."

[ Swami Prabhupada Bhaktivedanta, Srimad Bhagavatam ]

"The Vedic universe is described as a product of maya, or illusion, and it can be
thought of as a universal virtual reality system.....The role of the computer is
played by a fundamental energy called pradhana. This energy is activated by an
expansion of the Supreme known as Maha-Visnu, who acts as the universal programmer.
Thus activated pradhana produces subtle forms of energy, and these in turn produce
gross matter."

"Uma, the wife of Lord Siva, is also known as Maya Devi, or the goddess in charge
of the illusory energy. She is also the Mother Goddess who has been worshipped all
over the world by many different names. Since Siva is Uma's husband, he is the
master of illusion and technology. Thus there is a natural connection between Lord
Siva, who Salva approached to obtain his vimana, and Maya Danava, the master of
illusion who manufactured it."

[ Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities - Ancient Insights into Modern UFO

Phenomena ]

Many of properties of the vimanas bring to mind the ephemeral nature of UFO's and
their seeming ability to defy the conventional laws of physics. Carl Jung has
remarked on the dreamlike quality of UFO's, and somewhere, amidst the observation
of bright lights and lost time, the delineation between objective and subjective
consciousness appears to break down.

"Our research has found extensive similarities between UFO encounters and religious
and metaphysical mysticism, folklore, shamans' trances, migraine attacks, and even
the operations of the creative imagination. Among the similarities are recurrent
image-constants, a basically consistent sequence of events, and the unusual "peak
experience" quality common to all. Also, very bizarre incidents in abduction
reports have parallels in these phenomena. For example, the embarrassingly
incredible "bodily dismemberment" sometimes reported by abductees is a regular
feature of shaman's "death-rebirth" trances."

[ Alvin H. Lawson ]

Vimana
Do the vimanas represent an ancient technology that utilizes the forces of nature
(such as transient geophysical electrical fields) to effect human consciousness and
alter the perception of reality? Certainly there have been rumors of psychotronic
devices, such as those reported tested in the "M" Triangle area west of Moscow.

"There exists a natural phenomenon whose manifestations border on both the physical
and the mental. There is a medium in which human dreams can be implemented, and
this is the mechanism by which UFO events are generated, needing no superior
intelligence to trigger them This would explain the fugitivity of UFO
manifestations, the alleged contact with friendly occupants, and the fact that the
objects appear to keep pace with human technology and to use current symbols."

[ Jacques Valleé ]

Sudarshan Chakra
An early UFO report in 1929 (18 years before Kenneth Arnold filed his famous report
which lead newspapers to coin the term "flying saucers") may be instructive. In a
valley in between Mongolia and Tibet, a team of Norwegians and sherpas had just
completed building a shrine dedicated to Shambhala. (To Tibetan lamas, Shambhala
[which means "quietude"] is a secret place of enlightenment in the northern
mountains.)

"On August fifth - something remarkable! We were in our camp in the Kukunor
district not far from the Humboldt Chain. In the morning about half-past nine some
of our caravaneers noticed a remarkably big black eagle flying over us. Seven of us
began to watch this unusual bird. At this same moment another of our caravaneers
remarked, 'There is something far above the bird'. And he shouted in his
astonishment. We all saw, in a direction from north to south, something big and
shiny reflecting the sun, like a huge oval moving at great speed. Crossing our camp
the thing changed in its direction from south to southwest. And we saw how it
disappeared in the intense blue sky. We even had time to take our field glasses and
saw quite distinctly an oval form with shiny surface, one side of which was
brilliant from the sun."

[ Nicholas Roerich, Altai-Himalaya ]

According to a lama, the shiny oval was a "Radiant form of Matter" from Shambhala.
It was, he said, a protecting force that was always near but could not always be
perceived. In Tibetan Buddhist belief"matter is a development of thought,
crystallized mental energy".

"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts
build our like of tomorrow; our life is the creation of our mind."

[ The Dhammapada]

Students are taught to mentally visualize their tutelary god which slowly takes on
the same quasi-reality as a phantom monk. Under experienced control such ephemeral
creations of the mind, or tulpas can take many different forms such as man, animal,
tree, rock, etc.

"Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part
of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control....Tibetan
magicians also relate cases in which the tulpa is sent to fulfill a mission, but
does not come back and pursues its peregrinations as a half-conscious, dangerously
mischievous puppet. The same thing, it is said, may happen when the maker of the
tulpa dies before having dissolved it."

[ Alexandra David-Neel, With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet]

(2) Indian Technological Data

"There are ancient Indian accounts of manmade wooden vehicles that flew with wings
in the manner of modern airplanes. Although these wooden vehicles were also called
vimanas, most vimanas were not at all like airplanes. "

[ Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities- Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Phenomena
]

"According to ancient Sanskrit texts found a few years ago by Westerners in a South
Indian temple, vimanas were open topped flying devices, not strictly UFOs since
they were restricted to the Earth's atmosphere. Dr. Roberto Pinotti is an Italian
scientist, and on the 12th of October 1988 was a speaker in the World Space
Conference in Bangalore, India. He referred to several Hindu texts and pointed out
that Indian gods and heroes fought in the skies using piloted vehicles armed with
weapons. These weapons consisted of seven different types of mirrors and lenses
which were used for offensive and defensive purposes. The 'Pinjula Mirror' offered
a form of 'visual shield' preventing the pilots from 'evil rays', and the weapon
named 'Marika' was used to shoot enemy aircraft. Dr. Pinotti said that these
weapons 'do not seem to be too different from what we today call laser technology'.

"The vehicles themselves were made of special heat absorbing metals, called
'Somaka, Soundalike and Mourthwika'. According to Dr. Pinotti, the 'principles of
propulsion as far as the descriptions were concerned, might be defined as
electrical and chemical, but solar energy was involved as well.' Other scientists
have put forward the theory that the craft were driven by some sort of mercury ion
propulsion system. Dr. Pinotti concluded that the fact that vimanas were written
about hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years ago, plus that they resembled
modern UFOs would suggest that India had a '...superior but forgotten civilisation.
In the light of this, we think it will be better to examine the Hindu texts and
subject the descriptive models of vimanas to more scientific scrutiny'."

[ Nick Humphries, "UFO Guide" ]

Shakuna Vimana
"The Puspaku Car, that resembles the sun and belongs to my brother, was brought by
the powerful Ravan; that aerial and excellent car, going everywhere at will, is
ready for thee. That car, resembling a bright cloud in the sky, is in the city of
Lanka."

[ Ramayana ]

"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."

[ D. Hatcher Childress, "Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology" ]

Shakuna Vimana
In The Anti-Gravity Handbook

"G. R.. Josyer, director of the International Academy of Sanskrit Research in

Mysore, India, stated on September 25, 1952, that Indian manuscripts several
thousands of years old dealt with the construction of various types of aircraft for
civil aviation and for warfare.

"The specific manuscript on aeronautics included plans for three types of vimanas
(aircraft), the Rukma, Sundara, and Shakuna. Five hundred stanzas of an ancient
text treat of such intricate details as the choice and preparation of metals which
would be suitable for various parts of vimanas of different types."

"There were eight chapters...that provided plans for the construction of aircraft
that flew in the air, traveled under water, or floated pontoon-like on the water's
surface. Some stanzas told of the qualifications and training of pilots."

[ Brad Steiger, Worlds Before Our Own ]

"Indeed, there are a remarkable number of stories which involve the construction of
flying machines. Within some of these stories, we find an interesting clue as to
their possible source. In another set of eleventh-century narratives, the Brihat
Kath_ Álokasamgraha, carpenters are involved in the attempt to construct a flying
vehicle. When asked by Rumanavat to build a machine which can fly, they reply that
such aerial devices are only known to the Yavanas, i.e., the Greeks.

"This is repeated again in the same story, with the suggestion that it is kept as a
secret by them. Another romance, the 'Deeds of King Harsha', from the seventh
century, speaks of a flying machine made by a Greek who had been taken prisoner.
Laufer notes that the term for the aerial machine in this tale is 'a mechanical
vehicle (yantray_na) which travels on the surface of the air'."

Clive Hart, The Prehistory of Flight (Berkeley, 1985) "chronologically lists

references in various Western texts to flying machines [pp.195-197 et ff.] It is
notable that most of these early references to flight in these sources involve the
use of man-made wings. There are no discussions of more complex man-carrying aerial
vehicles as we found in the Chinese, Korean, and Indian tales."

[ Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private Descriptions of Flying

Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Other Texts" (draft copy) ]

(3) Chinese and Korean Flying Devices

The earliest written Chinese account of flying machines describes them as taking
place in remote antiquity. The following selections are from Dr. Benjamin B.
Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private Descriptions of Flying Machines as Found in
Early Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Other Texts", which I am able to quote with the
kind permission of the author.

"The Chi Kung people were good at making mechanical devices for killing [all kinds
of] birds. They could also make aerial carriages which, with a fair wind, traveled
great distances. In the time of the emperor Thang [mid-second millennium B.C.], a
westerly wind carried such a car as far as Yüchow, whereupon Thang had the car
taken to pieces, not wishing his own people to see it. Ten years later there came
an easterly wind (of sufficient strength), and then the car was reassembled and the
visitors were sent back to their own country, which lies 40,000 li beyond the Jade
Gate."

[ Chang Hua, "Po Wu Chih" ('Record of Investigation of Things') in the Po Wu Chih ]

Like the devices described in the Indian Brihat Kath Álokasamgraha, Chinese flying
machines are often described as being made of wood and fly according to
straightforward (although not understood) mechanical principles. The following
accounts also postdate the spread of Hellenistic culture.

"On the southern peak of Tian Lau mountain, a long time ago, Lu Ban carved some
wood into a crane which then flew 700 li. Later, the bird was placed on the west
peak of the northern mountain. Emperor Wu [157-87 B.C.] ordered his people to go
take it, but then it flew back to the southern peak. Often, when it looks like it
is about to rain, then the bird's wings begin to move, flapping as if it is about
to fly."

[ Shu I Chi ]

"By the third century A.D., we read of people constructing a flying vehicle."

[ Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private Descriptions of Flying

Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Other Texts" (draft copy) ]

Shakuna Vimana
"Some use the inner part of the jujube [=date] tree to make a flying vehicle, using
ox leather straps fastened to encircling blades, so as to propel this machine. Some
others have the idea of making five snakes, six dragons, and three oxen [these are
kites in the shape of these animals] encounter the 'hard wind', and so ride it
(i.e., the vehicle), rising up 40 li. [That region] is called the Tai Qing ('Area
of Upper Air'). In the Tai Qing region, the air is very hard, and can lift people.
The Master says that a yuan [this word can mean 'kite' or 'hawk'] flying, spiraling
higher and higher, only needs to straighten out its two wings and not flap them any
more to move forward, because it is riding on the hard wind. The dragons when they
first rise up, step on the clouds, going to 40 li [altitude], then fly by
themselves. This account comes from the [Taoist] adepts, and is recounted, being
handed down to ordinary people, yet the common people are not really able to
understand it."

[ Ko Hung (A.D. 283-343), Pao Pu Tzu ]

"...The picture we get of the device is quite ambiguous, with ox leather straps
somehow tied to a circle of swords or blades, or blades [moving?] around. The
motion of the blades, though, is never really clearly described in the passage, nor
is the overall configuration of the vehicle. We are left with the nonetheless
interesting fact that there is a description of a mechanical device intended for
flying."

"This is precisely what is relevant in these stories to the historian of science:

the fact that a romantic tale or story should employ a mechanical device and at
times even include a description of its construction or function. This fact does
not necessarily mean that the stories contain elements of fact, or actual records
of some now-lost technology."

[ Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private Descriptions of Flying

Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Other Texts" (draft copy) ]

Shakuna Vimana
The Koreans have accounts of similar flying machines, although of much more recent
derivation.

"There is another story related to these [ways of naming]. Jung Pyung Goo was the
inventor of an airplane in Choson [Korea]. During the Im Jin War [between Korea and
Japan, 1592-1597], when Jin Joo fortress was in danger, he rescued his friend by an
airplane, flying 30 miles away, and then landing. The spinning top with which
children play, 'Ping Goo', whirls around on the ground as it is whipped by them,
and then lifts up into the air. This is like Jung Pyung Goo's riding of the
airplane, moving up and down. So the name 'Pyung Goo' was given [to the top],
changed to 'Ping Goo'."

[ Kwon Tokkyu in a 1923 Korean text ]

Where were such machines manufactured?

"Several thousand of li from China, in what is today Russia... it is said that the
people were able to manufacture wheels for a flying machine. Each flying machine
required four wheels in all. Furthermore, legend has it that they were able to fly
one thousand li in one day. The people of Xi Wu [?] also produced a flying machine,
and utilizing a bellows [usually] used in smelting, a pulley hauling device, and
other methods, enabled the flying machine to move. The machine was able to float in
the air and move freely and without obstacle on rivers or land. During the
dangerous times of war and turmoil, this vehicle could be used to ward off attacks
from the enemy."
[ Yi Kyu Gyong, "A Discriminating Look at the Possibilities of Flying Machines" in
A Compilation of Previously Uncollected Texts from Throughout the World ]

"What caused the creation of this separate category of 'technical myths' is not
entirely clear. One what might well ask why the some of the stories ever entered
into discussions of machines at all. Why didn't stories of winged beings and
levitating immortals simply continue? Why did this separate category of humans in
flying machines arise? Perhaps there is a connection to the development of kites,
which occurred at a period in China preceding many of these tales of 'aerial
carriages'. Kites gave people a view of flight made practical: structures made of
bamboo, wood, cloth, and paper, man-made devices actually airborne. There are even
stories of kites large enough to hold individuals, a not implausible scenario."

[ Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin, "Mechanical Mythology: Private Descriptions of Flying

Machines as Found in Early Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Other Texts" (draft copy) ]

[ Source : UFO Evidence - "Secrets of the Vimana" by Kamini Singh from South Asian
Women's Forum, Monday Oct 16, 2000]