# The Vimana



## Arkangel (Nov 28, 2005)

I found this on one forum and thought that all us SF fans would love it.

The vimana are flying machines from ancient Hindu texts. Here are the plans to one, based on the specifications in one text:

















These are drawn from specifications set down in the Hindu text, without speculation.

How is it that these ancients had such good knowledge of flight? Is it possible that they possessed the power of flight, through these "vimana"? Is it possible that they used them as weapons? Is it possible that they used missiles; rockets?

Some readings from these texts:


> "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





> "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_





> "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_


Most interestingly:


> "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_





> "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_


 
Those last two is reminiscent of a nuclear weapon. Pottery breaking out of nowhere, hair and nails falling out, birds turning white, food becoming infected, etc.

It just makes you wonder and recently archaeologists found a large layer of glass buried under ground. It stretched for some distance, just a flat (not perfectly) layer of glass. This is exactly what happens when a nuclear weapon is used; a layer of glass is formed through the heat.

A few sources:
http://www.geocities.com/dipalsarvesh/viman1.html#a3
http://www.crystalinks.com/vedic.html
http://www.mystae.com/restricted/st...pts/vimana.html


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## nixie (Nov 28, 2005)

It does make you wonder...was there flight thousands of years ago with weapons akin to nuclear??? If so how was the knowledge lost???Did it fade from memory or was there some sort of disaster?
Was civilisation more advance thousands of years ago? did man's destructive nature destroy the technology,so we had to start again?
Are we caught in an endless circle of advancement and destruction?
The possibilities are endless...


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## Rosemary (Dec 1, 2005)

nixie said:
			
		

> Are we caught in an endless circle of advancement and destruction?  The possibilities are endless...



I have been wondering the same thing since I first heard of it (hi Ark ).  

So what is to stop someone else from using that knowledge now?


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## chrispenycate (Dec 1, 2005)

Nixie said:
			
		

> Was civilisation more advanced thousands of years ago? did man's destructive nature destroy the technology,so we had to start again?



It would be tens of thousands, not thousands.(pre agricultural revolution in mesopotamia, at the very least)  And even then, the technology would have had to be something very different from ours to leave no trace (certainly not nuclear) Still, neither of those renders the premise untenable. 



			
				Rosemary said:
			
		

> I have been wondering the same thing since I first heard of it (hi Ark ).
> 
> So what is to stop someone else from using that knowledge now?



Because, in the intervening period, we have advanced so far in wisdom and morality


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## GOLLUM (Dec 1, 2005)

chrispenycate said:
			
		

> Because, in the intervening period, we have advanced so far in wisdom and morality


Now that's gotta be the funniest thing I've heard all day....


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## nixie (Dec 1, 2005)

chrispenycate said:
			
		

> It would be tens of thousands, not thousands.(pre agricultural revolution in mesopotamia, at the very least) And even then, the technology would have had to be something very different from ours to leave no trace (certainly not nuclear) Still, neither of those renders the premise untenable.
> 
> 
> 
> Because, in the intervening period, we have advanced so far in wisdom and morality


 
I'd never noticed...


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## Rosemary (Dec 1, 2005)

chrispenycate said:
			
		

> the technology would have had to be something very different from ours to leave no trace (certainly not nuclear) Still, neither of those renders the premise untenable.
> 
> Because, in the intervening period, we have advanced so far in wisdom and morality



So what would have cause the layer of melted glass caused by excessive heat & the other indications of a nucelar weapon being used?

If we have advanced in wisdom and morality, why don't we use them?


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## chrispenycate (Dec 1, 2005)

Rosemary said:
			
		

> So what would have cause the layer of melted glass caused by excessive heat & the other indications of a nucelar weapon being used?



You didn't want to ask that question- Any localised region of high temperature- it doesn't need to be nuclear. From the texts it was probably solar energy concentrated by mirrors, but kinetic strike (Synthetic meteors, if you like) or geothermal. But the lack of any archeological evidence of high technology from that period suggests it was biodegradable- or possibly, as the texts say, demon powered.


			
				Rosemary said:
			
		

> If we have advanced in wisdom and morality, why don't we use them?


Perhaps I was a smidgin tongue in cheek for that- but really, I'm an optimist who believes things are getting better- you just need to take the long view, rather than expecting the age of Aquarius to dawn, and all human suffering evaporate.
At least now we condemn genocide and torture- a couple of centuries earlier most of Europe would have been applauding Adolf's efforts, or the Serbs in Bosnia. And africans killing each other? "my dear, what can you expect? They're hardly better than animals- worse, some" At least now we feel guilty about it- and who knows, in another century or so, might actually do something.


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## Rosemary (Dec 1, 2005)

chrispenycate said:
			
		

> You didn't want to ask that question- Any localised region of high temperature- it doesn't need to be nuclear. From the texts it was probably solar energy concentrated by mirrors, but kinetic strike (Synthetic meteors, if you like) or geothermal.
> Perhaps I was a smidgin tongue in cheek for that- but really, I'm an optimist who believes things are getting better- you just need to take the long view, rather than expecting the age of Aquarius to dawn, and all human suffering evaporate.
> who knows, in another century or so, might actually do something.


Thanks for the explanation Chris...What you say sounds logical about the solar energy and melted glass.  
I'm an optimist as well as a '60's 'hippie/flower child so I guess I feel that something should have been done long before, not in another century or so...


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## Arkangel (Dec 1, 2005)

chrispenycate said:
			
		

> At least now we condemn genocide and torture- a couple of centuries earlier most of Europe would have been applauding Adolf's efforts, or the Serbs in Bosnia. And africans killing each other? "my dear, what can you expect? They're hardly better than animals- worse, some" At least now we feel guilty about it- and who knows, in another century or so, might actually do something.


Are we talking about time travel other than that what else could be done about the past.

There are a lot of things we do now that will be barbaric in the future. Like using fossil fuel for instance.


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