Let us concentrate the aircraft technology mentioned in ancient vedic literature of India. There are many descriptions of flying machines that are generally called Vimanas. Several popular ancient epics describe their use in warfare. The Vaimanika Shastra is an early 20th century Sanskrit text on aeronautics, claimed to be obtained by mental channeling, about construction of vim?nas, the “chariots of the Gods”. According to an American author “The ancient Hindus could navigate the air, and not only navigate it, but fight battles in it like so many war-eagles combating for the domination of the clouds. To be so perfect in aeronautics, they must have known all the arts and sciences related to the science, including the strata and currents of the atmosphere, the relative temperature, humidity, density and specific gravity of the various gases…” India had a treasure trove of hitech warfare technology that even the ‘mighty West’ does not possess.
The Brahmastra and Vimana used in the pre-Mahabharata period are nothing but the earlier versions of today’s nuclear weapons and spacecraft.’ The Mahabharata compliments “the all-knowing Yavanas” (sarvajnaa yavanaa, said to mean the Greeks), as the creators of the vimanas: The Yavanas, O king, are all-knowing; the Suras are particularly so (sarvajn? yavan? rajan shur?z caiva vishesatah)
The wonderful epic of the ‘Ramayana’ the inspiration of the world’s great classic literature, intrigues us most today by its frequent allusions to aerial vehicles and annihilating bombs, which we consider to be inventions of our own 20th century impossible in the far past. Students of Sanskrit literature soon revise their preconceived ideas and find that the heroes of Ancient India were apparently equipped with aircraft and missiles more sophisticated than those we boast today.” In the Ramayana, the pushpaka (“flowery”) vimana of Ravana is described as follows:
“The Pushpaka chariot that resembles the Sun and belongs to my brother was brought by the powerful Ravana; that aerial and excellent chariot going everywhere at will …. that chariot resembling a bright cloud in the sky … and the King [Rama] got in, and the excellent chariot at the command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere.’”
According to Dr. Vyacheslav Zaitsev: “the holy Indian Sages, the Ramayana for one, tell of “Two storied celestial chariots with many windows” “They roar like off into the sky until they appear like comets.” The Mahabharata and various Sanskrit books describe at length these chariots, “powered by winged lighting…it was a ship that soared into the air, flying to both the solar and stellar regions.”
Is this discussion just limited to mythology or can we link it to Indian history? I read somewhere that there were wall paintings in some forts in Rajasthan depicting the use of rockets in Mughal warfare and even by Tipu Sultan of Mysore . Another interesting fact he gave was that the spacecraft could become invisible on its own. To the researcher’s bewilderment, a kind of ‘nuclear power’ (‘solar power’ coupled with gamma rays) was used in those days as fuel to propel a rocket.
There are no physical remains of ancient Indian aircraft technology but references to ancient flying machines are commonplace in the ancient Indian texts. . Depending on one’s point of view, either it contains some of the earliest known science fiction, or it records conflict between beings with weapons as powerful and advanced as anything used today. There have been lots of theories and speculations in this area but there is a lack of concrete evidence to prove it all beyond reasonable doubts. However, let us all remember that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
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