Monday 4 August 2014

Aeroplanes, Atom Bombs and Missiles in ancient India

Some people say that in ancient India we had aeroplanes, atom bombs and guided missiles. In support of this argument they refer to the Ramayan and Mahabharat.


It is true that the Ramayan mentions Pushpak Viman, an alleged flying chariot, on which Lord Ram is said to have brought Sita from Lanka to Ayodhya, after defeating Ravan. On this basis it is claimed that there were aeroplanes in ancient India.

My reply to such people is this :

We must first understand what are Ramayan and Mahabharat ? They are epic poems ( mahakavyas). In poetry there is a thing called 'poetic licence', which gives a poet the right to exaggerate. So one must not take all things in the Ramayan or Mahabharat literally. As in much of poetry, many things are imaginative.

Everyone in the world knows that the first aeroplane in the world ( the Kitty Hawk ) was built by the Wright brothers in 1903. Hence we make ourselves a laughing stock before the whole world by claiming that there were aeroplanes in ancient India.

If there were aeroplanes in ancient India then there must have been engines in ancient India ( because an aeroplane requires an engine). In that case soldiers should have fought in tanks instead of in chariots and horses in the Mahabharat.

Similarly, the claim that there were guided missiles and atom bombs in ancient India,( because there is mention of brahmastra, agnyastra, narayanastra, etc in the Mahabharat and Ramayan ) is also nonsense. These were only poetic imaginations.

Such people who talk such nonsense do not know the real great scientific discoveries of our ancestors, e.g. the decimal system in mathematics, plastic surgery in medicine, etc ( I have mentioned about some of them in my article 'Sanskrit as a language of Science'). Instead they make us a laughing stock before the whole world by talking such nonsense.

31 comments:

  1. Sir,
    I can vouch for the ridicule having been an expat.

    We are seen as being bigoted, impolite and unwilling to accept the fact that Indians didn't discover everything.

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    Replies
    1. We discovered decimal system, plastic surgery, etc but certainly not aeroplanes, atom bomb or guided missiles

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    2. With due respect as jurist, what evidence you have that planes, bomb, 7 G-missiles were non existent in ancient indian territories.... you have nothing on record...but proclaim negative judgment without any negative proof on file...Sorry to say it is old habbit of jusist who think they are always right. sir pl take it with pinch of salt that you did not have time to see National geogr. histry - ancient aliens... otherwise you u would not said. so. Please do a favour to devot time to know world still unknown to you.
      best regards

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  2. Sir is it true that Sumerian civilization knew about zero,and it may have come to India through them.In India most of the knowledge was colonized by the brahmins,who thought about things other than life on earth,more than 80% of the population leave alone access were forbidden from learning or investigation due to our Varna system.

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    Replies
    1. It is wrong shunya was used by Hindus as created by them. Migrations from India went westwards. The Druids, celts, Jorsstrians, Greeks etc. Read Indians in Greece by E POKOKE.

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    2. The Sumerian civilization was much before the vedic civilization in India,so no question of transfer of knowledge from India to them.

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    3. No. Indians discovered decimal system including zero

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    4. In the year 3000BC ,The Sumerians and Babylonians knew a lot about mathematics although can't say for sure if they knew zero.By the way sanskrit does not have a script of its own,so how did they invent zero.

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  3. Why can't Katzu Saab pronunce his healthy comments on Bible and Quran ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No,
      Mr Katju won't do that as it does not suits him. He can question Pushpak Viman but he will not question Barak Horse of Muhammad on which Muhammad flew.

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    2. Its written in Koran that mohammad, when he reached in jannat saw the sun hiding under the chair of allah in the night... learned judge please take trouble to comment on this also..

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. We don't necessarily need to think of these as imagination. But having imagination like this at that time would be very difficult. See if we think at this time what the world would look like in the next ten years it is almost impossible to be successful at it. Just one question, do you believe our gods did exist at that time? Did they exist as gods or normal humans who have bee glorified?

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  6. " It will be our own fault if we fail to utilize the knowledge now gained to elucidate those portion of our sacred books which are unintelligible".

    B G Tilak (Book:- The Arctic Home in the Vedas)

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  7. Over 90% Indians do not know that such things were kind of shown to them bcoz India is a collection of different races/civilization and something like these mythologies kind of helps to bind them or to have a common mindset(i.e. dharma), even if most of them are utter nonsense n defy logic.
    I can say that Mr katju has a similar way of thinking as I do n I agree to his statements over the last few yrs.

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  8. Mr. Katju,

    Why I feel that you are anti-hindu??? You freely abuse hindu religious text but not other?? This is your secularism???

    You were not at the time of Mahabharat or Ramayan that you are speaking what is true or existed and what is false and did not exist.

    Hindu people have faith in them and you don't have any right to hurt them

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  9. Sir, some people always weat Yellow Glass to see things. So, everything looks in yellow color to them. But, I am proud of you sir that you are expressing truth. Second, there is one yogi, currently living in Coimbatore, said to a crowd of 10000 people that "nails and hairs grow on dead body if it kept for few days because the soul lives near". All the 10000 people believed this. But, no truth in it!. The science tells that the body containing 60%+ water shrinks due to water evaporation and hair-beds and nail-beds shrink exposing as if hair and nail are growing. This yogi made 10000 people as fools in one stroke!. This is how India becoming unscientific day by day, progressing in oppositely in science.

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  10. Sir, please review on this video.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K71W1vGZ1ME

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  11. sir is what is written in Vimana Shastra feasible,can we build an aeroplane with it.

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  12. We developed some respect for you for disclosing the corrupt nature of Indian judiciary and defended your position on Twitter too but reading now that you consider Ramayan and Mahabharat imaginary seriously raises doubts on your level of intelligence when even top scientists of the world are acknowledging such possibilities based on quantum mechanics, meta physics, and such other terms that they use to understand those extraordinary acts that appear fantastic to ordinary people. Please understand that it is NOT about religious faith, it is about understanding the science, called Vigyan (application of knowledge) in sanskrit. It may be a good idea to focus on areas that we may be good at. Hare Krishna.

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  13. Sorry to read it... penning down thoughts on unknown domain is rediculous... & you please contunue to write on "what ail Indian judiciary, how the judges can be appoined... & punished when on wrong foot. after all they are not demigod but men/women with all ill-fated vulnerabilities of being biased, giving fovorable judgeets, ingoring/violating rules, mocking consitution, taking bribes, xually exploiting their junior staff, the list is endless.
    I request you to concentrate in field U excelled and help country to make transparent, effiecient, accountable judicvary with a system to GET WRONG DOER Judges punished on par with (twice is better) commoners.
    It pains to see U not uttered a word on she-judge harrassed by he justice in MP, but on a blog report a suo-moto cognizance was taken against Tejpal, and he is still struggling in jail, but a judge in MP is out in chair and passing judgment.... There are several sufferers reported in numerous blogs including in comment of your own blog, but no suo moto action has been taken... why. Please do not deffend selective justive on suo-moto..Sir, U R respected and persona of letters, please concentrate your force to eradicate ill-ness of Indian justice.
    I thing it will be a great service u can do in coming days.
    best regards

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  14. We all know that western Historians say that Ramayan and Mahabharat are the epics.

    Is it correct,to believe as truth, what the western people says?

    The facts of Ramayan and Mahabharat may be exaggerated but no one should deny the existence of Ram and Krishna.

    First we should understand the process of recording of history, initially the history of Ram and Krishna in the form of Ramayan and Mahabharat was verbal subsequently it was written.

    It is quite possible that some facts may not be explained properly but one thing is certain that Ram and Krishna have done some thing great for the society in very extra ordinarily manner by using the technology available in those days that people are remerging them even after so many years.

    We should not deny the existence of Pushpak Viman, Brahmastra and Agnyastra because we don’t know in which form they were existing. Today we may not able to explain them correctly which causes a doubt in the mind of people like you. After some years we may get the right answer.

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  15. Mr. Katju - The inventions were there in place or not, that's another story. Of course you didn't had the patent thing in place at that moment and you have no other proof. But as evident from your own statement, the concept (idea) of planes or missiles was very well in place for sure and for that you should not feel ashamed but be proud instead.

    When it comes to India, west laughs about a lot of other things as well for example people urinating in public or driving in opposite lanes and better you not just speak/criticize but actually do something about it.

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  16. न्यायमूर्ति काट्जू ! यह प्लेन और एटम बम युद्ध के साधनों का अंतिम सत्य नहीं है. बहुत जल्दी ऐसा समय आने वाला है जब युद्धक विमान और एटम बम के ये जखीरे धरे के धरे रह जाएगे. युद्ध जिताने वाले नए साधन हमारे सामने उपस्थित होंगे. जीवन सतत रूप से परिवर्तनशील है. मध्ययुग में हम तकनीकी और विज्ञान पर अपनी पकड़ को खो दिया लेकिन इसका अर्थ यह नहीं की हम सदा सर्वदा के लिए पीछे हो गए. विगत का महिमा-मंडन कर के संतुष्ट हो जाना मुर्खता होगी. लेकिन विगत से प्रेरणा ले कर नए सिरे से आगे बढना हमारे सुंदर भविष्य की प्रत्याभूति दे सकता है.

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  17. Shivkar Bāpuji Talpade (1864–1916) and Subbarāya Shāstry were two Indian scientists and Maharashtrian members of the Pathare Prabhu community who, some believe to have constructed and flown India's first unmanned airplane in the year 1895 to a height of 1500 feet.[1] This event is supposed to have occurred 8 years before the Wright brothers' Wright Flyer, the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. However, this claim is not supported factually since its technical basis has been deprecated by researches into the technological feasibility of such flights Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,.[2] Talpade's airplane was named Marutsakhā, a term used for the goddess Sarasvati in the Rigveda (RV 7.96.2) -- a portmanteau of Marut meaning stream of air and Sakha meaning friend. Talpade lived in Mumbai and was a scholar in Sanskrit literature and Vedas.[3]
    Talpade is supposed to have constructed Marutsakhā under the guidance of Pandit Subbarāya Shāstry. However, according to a study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,[2] it is not possible to construct such a flying machine. Moreover, contemporary accounts of a successful flight or evidences of such an achievement are scarce and the technical feasibility is highly dubious. Shāstry was the author of the Vaimānika Shāstra, an early 20th-century Sanskrit text on aeronautics supposedly obtained by Vedic studies and automatic writing. Marutsakhā may have been constructed based on Vimāna, mythological flying machines from Vedic literature. This is suggested by D. K. Kanjilal's 1985 Vimana in Ancient India: Aeroplanes Or Flying Machines in Ancient India, as well as reports contemporary to Talpade in the Marāthi-language newspaper Kesari.[4] One of Talpade's students, Pt. S. D. Satawlekar, wrote that Marutsakhā sustained flight for a few minutes.[5] Deccan Herald in 2003 stated "scholarly audience headed by a famous Indian judge and a nationalist, Mahadeva Govin-da Ranade and H H Sayaji Rao Gaekwad, respectively, had the good fortune to see the unmanned aircraft named as ‘Marutsakthi’ take off, fly to a height of 1500 feet and then fall down to earth"".[6] The presence of Mahadev Govind Ranade and Sayajirao Gaekwad III during the flight is also cited in "Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute".[7] A former Indian defense officer stated in 2004 that Marutsakhā failed to operate to its full design limits due to technical reasons.[5]
    After the experiment, Marutsakhā apparently was stored at Talpade's house until well after his death. Velakara quotes one of Talpade's nieces, Roshan Talpade, as saying the family used to sit in the aircraft's frame and imagine they were flying.[4] A model reconstruction of Marutsakhā was exhibited at an exhibition on aviation at Vile Parle, and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has preserved documents relating to the experiment.[5]

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  18. Oh...Mr Katzu ji.
    What poetical works can we call an Epic?. Epic should contain five characteristics in which it should be an historical event is also one. The timing of Ramayana is very difficult to decide. The inspiration that Ramayana gives is very different from your Vimanas.
    It is quite common that scientific people condemn epics and its incidents. But why only Hindu texts? Thats the problem.
    I hope you are not one among those 'think tankers' who are deliberately working to defame Indian culture and its scriptures.
    Moreover, there is no fun in criticizing the thing that is respected by crores of people of this Nation as if you are the only enlightened person of this Nation who wanted to educate the entire nation. Dont you feel it look too silly?

    It doesnt mean that you sound bad always. You are real genius many times, but a fool some times, like this time.

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  19. In Indian culture, the term "Macaulay's Children" is sometimes used to refer to people born of Indian ancestry who adopt Western culture as a lifestyle, or display attitudes influenced by colonisers ("Macaulayism")[14] – expressions used disparagingly, and with the implication of disloyalty to one's country and one's heritage.

    ReplyDelete

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    ReplyDelete
  22. Justice Katju
    When it comes to hindu scriptures anybody can get away with abject, disgusting ignorance!

    Kanchi mahaperiyava has pointed out sanskrit works of Bhoj Raj on aircraft building with a scientific method called JOIST FAN PRINCIPLE. Then why did he not construct one is a good question. Simply because he envisioned that this machine can bring enoromous death & DESTRUCTION. Hence he omitted the vital formulas in it.

    Jai Hind

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  23. I THINK the vimans which were used in ramayan thats all are ufo in which some kind of anti gravity technology were working

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