HistoriCity: Mythical flying machines and the false science of ‘Vaimanika Shashtra’

Valmiki’s Ramayana mentions Vimana, an ancient celestial vehicle. Modern claims of advanced ancient aviation technology are largely dismissed as fanciful.

Valmiki’s Ramayana is believed to be dated between the 7th century BCE and the 3rd CE. In one of the earliest references to an airborne vehicle it shows the abduction of Sita in the Pushpak Vimana (flowery aircraft), a celestial craft that changed hands from Brahma to Kuber to Ravan. Rama won the epic war and returned the craft to Kuber.

This is an AI generated image of Pushpak Vimana from the Ramayana. (Meta)

The word Vimana today means aircraft but its earlier meanings have been wider and more heavenly. The Adi Parva of the other great epic Mahabharat refers to the Vimana as a divine chariot enjoyed by deities; in the Jain tradition a Vimana is described as a palace which is the abode of the deities serving Mahavira. In temple architecture, particularly, in south India, Vimana means the pyramidal structure built over the garbh-griha or the sacred sanctorum of a temple.

These ancient references are also corroborated by at least one known inscription. In the Girnar rock edict left by emperor Ashoka, it is written that “In times past, for many hundreds of years, there had ever been promoted the killing of animals and the hurting of living beings, discourtesy to relatives, (and) discourtesy to Sramanas and Brahmanas. But now, in consequence of the practice of morality on the part of King Beloved of the Gods, Priyadarsin, the sound of drums has become the sound of morality, showing the people representations of aerial chariots, elephants, masses of fire, and other divine figures”.

In the more than two thousand years since Ashoka’s edicts were decreed, innumerable Sanskrit texts have been produced. The Gupta period (4th -6th BCE) itself saw the production of a large number of treatises and other works but none mentioned much about flying machines. As per available records

it was about half a millennium later that the Samarangana Sutradhara, a 11th century work on temple architecture and attributed to king Bhoja of Dhar, spoke of a flying chariot or vehicle, the Vimana.

Dr Mattia Salvini, Sanskrit and Buddhist scholar writes in The Samaranga Sutradhara: Themes and Context for the Science of Vastu: “The author says something that should not pass unobserved, the instructions to make flying machines are purposely incomplete.” Salvini attributes the exclusion to ‘ethical considerations’; he cites the following shloka to support his view: yantranam ghatana nokta guptyartham najnatavasat taira hetu (In this respect, that should be known as the reason, i.e that the details are not fruitful when disclosed).

Vaimanika Shastra

In 2015, a paper presented at a Science Congress in Mumbai claimed on the basis of the Vaimanika Shastra that aviation technology not only existed during the Vedic period but that it was also more advanced than today. The paper was dismissed as fanciful and false science, which threatened to bring disrepute to the genuine achievements of India such as those in mathematics and astronomy.

The paper, titled ‘Ancient Indian Aviation Technology’ by former pilot Anand Bodas and Ameya Jadhav drew flak from the scientific community and has been forgotten as an embarrassing episode. The paper also brought back into scrutiny the Vaimanika Shastra itself. The shastra published in 1950s is based on a ‘divine revelation’ received in 1904 by an illiterate ascetic from the mythical sage Bharadwaja. The Vaimanika Shastra makes such impossible assertions, including flying speeds of 8,000 mph, that it was discarded as a flight of fancy. It says for instance, some of the construction materials include the urine of a donkey, cow and an elephant! One of the five aircraft described in the text is shaped like a multi-tier wedding cake, and had precise dietary instructions for pilots.

Author Angela Saini writes in Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World, “There were recipes too, for what these pilots should eat (‘56 [roots] should be purified, powdered, and duly cooked, and made into balls, and given out for use as food’). And there was a detailed description of how to generate electricity to power the dynamos that would drive the aircraft (‘get a . . .flame-faced lion’s skin, duly cleaned, add salt, and placing in the vessel containing spike-grass acid, boil for . . .15 hours. Then wash it with cold water’).”

In a 1974 essay (A Critical Study of the Work: Vymanika Shastra), S M Deshpande, H S Mukunda and others analysed the historicity of the so-called Shastra and the claims it made. They wrote, “What we feel unfortunate in history is that some people tend to eulogise and glorify whatever they can find about our past, even without valid evidence... the work ‘Vymanika Shastra’ was brought into existence sometime between 1900 and 1922…the only evidence in favour of Maharshi Bhardwaja being the author is the textual statement and nothing more”.

After examining the technical aspects of the five planes, training of pilots, fuel composition and other claims in the Vaimanika Shastra, the scientist wrote a scathing conclusion. They said, “the planes described are at 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 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... Also, no data have been given about the weights of crafts and their components. This is serious since weight is fundamental to the flying of heavier than air machines. Moreover, the unit of mass does not even appear anywhere in the text.”

HistoriCity is a column by author Valay Singh that narrates the story of a city that is in the news, by going back to its documented history, mythology and archaeological digs. The views expressed are personal.