Ancient Hindus could navigate the air By Shachi Rairikar

Sacrificer           Shachi Rairikar
Sacrifice code       wfor0378
Sacrifice date       25 march 2009

Ancient Hindus could navigate the air
By Shachi Rairikar

"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..." -Col. Olcott in a lecture in Allahabad, in
1881.

The Rig Veda, the oldest document of the human race, includes
references to the following modes of transportation: jalayan-a
vehicle designed to operate in air and water (Rig Veda 6.58.3);
kaara-a vehicle that operates on ground and in water (Rig Veda
9.14.1); tritala-a vehicle consisting of three storeys (Rig Veda
3.14.1); trichakra ratha-a three-wheeled vehicle designed to operate
in air (Rig Veda 4.36.1); vaayu ratha-a gas or wind-powered chariot
(Rig Veda 5.41.6); vidyut ratha-a vehicle that operates on power
(Rig Veda 3.14.1).

Ancient Sanskrit literature is full of descriptions of flying
machines-vimanas. From the many documents found, it is evident that
the scientist-sages Agastya and Bharadwaja had developed the lore of
aircraft construction.

The Agastya Samhita gives Agastya's descriptions on two types of
aeroplanes. The first is a chchatra (umbrella or balloon) to be
filled with hydrogen. The process of extracting hydrogen from water
is described in elaborate detail and the use of electricity in
achieving this is clearly stated. This was considered
to be a primitive type of plane, useful only for escaping from a
fort when the enemy had set fire to the jungle all around. Hence the
name agniyana. The second type of aircraft mentioned is somewhat on
the lines of the parachute. It could be opened and shut by operating
chords. This aircraft has been described as vimanadvigunam, i.e. of
a lower order than the regular aeroplane.

The process of extracting hydrogen from water is described in
elaborate detail and the use of electricity in achieving this is
clearly stated.

Aeronautics or Vaimaanika Shastra is a part of Yantra Sarvasva of
Bharadwaja. This is also known as Brihadvimaana Shastra. Vaimaanika
Shastra deals with aeronautics, including the design of aircraft,
the way they can be used for transportation and other applications,
in detail. The knowledge of aeronautics is described in Sanskrit in
100 sections, eight chapters, 500 principles and 3,000 shlokas.
Great sage Bharadwaja explained the construction of aircraft and
the way to fly it in air, on land, on water and use the same
aircraft like a submarine. He also described the construction of war-
planes and fighter aircraft.

Vaimaanika Shastra explains the metals and alloys and other required
material, which can make an aircraft imperishable in any condition.
Planes which will not break (abhedya), or catch fire (adaahya) and
which cannot be cut (achchedya) have been described. Along with the
treatise, there are diagrams on three types of aeroplanes-Sundara,
Shukana and Rukma.

The aircraft is classified into three types-Mantrika, Tantrika and
Kritaka, to suit different yugas or eras. In krita yuga, it is said,
Dharma was well established. The people of that time had the
divinity to reach any place using their ashtasiddhis. The aircraft
used in treta yuga are called Mantrika vimana, flown by the power of
hymns (mantras). Twenty-five varieties of aircraft including
Pushpaka vimana belong to this era. The aircraft used in dwapara yuga
were called Tantrika vimana, flown by the power of tantras. Fifty-
six varieties of aircraft including Bhairava and Nandaka belong to
this era. The aircraft used in kali yuga, the on-going yuga, are
called Kritaka vimana, flown by the power of engines. Twenty-five
varieties of aircraft including Sundara, Shukana and Rukma belong to
this era.

Bharadwaja states that there are 32 secrets of the science of
aeronautics. Of these, some are astonishing and some indicate an
advance even beyond our own times. For instance, the secret of para
shabda graaha, i.e. a cabin for listening to the conversation in
another plane, has been explained by elaborately describing an
electrically worked sound-receiver that did the trick.
Manufacture of different types of instruments and putting them
together to form an aircraft are also described.

It appears that aerial warfare was also not unknown, for the
treatise gives the techniques of shatru vimana kampana kriya, and
shatru vimana nashana kriya, i.e. shaking and destroying enemy
aircraft, as well as photographing enemy planes, rendering their
occupants unconscious and making one's own plane invisible.

In Vastraadhikarana, the chapter describing the dress and other
material required while flying, talks in detail about the
clotheswear for both the pilot and the passenger separately.

Ahaaraadhikarana is yet another section exclusively dealing with the
food habits of a pilot. This has a variety of guidelines for pilots
to maintain their health through strict diet.

Bharadwaja also provides a bibliography. He had consulted six
treatises by six different authors previous to him and he gives
their names and the names of their works in the following order:
Vimana Chandrika by Narayanamuni; Vyoma Yana Mantrah by Shaunaka;
Yantra Kalpa by Garga; Yana Bindu by Vachaspati; Kheta
Yaana Pradeepika by Chaakraayani; Vyoma Yaanarka Prakasha by Dundi
Natha.

As before Bharadwaja, after him too there have been Sanskrit writers
on aeronautics and there were four commentaries on his work. The
names of the commentators are Bodh Deva, Lalla, Narayana Shankha and
Vishwambhara.

Vaimaanika Shastra explains the metals and alloys and other required
material, which can make an aircraft imperishable in any condition.

Evidence of existence of aircraft are also found in the Arthashastra
of Kautilya (c. 3rd century b.c.). Kautilya mentions amongst various
tradesmen and technocrats the saubhikas as `pilots conducting
vehicles in the sky'. Saubha was the name of the aerial flying city
of King Harishchandra and the form saubika means `one who flies or
knows the art of flying an aerial city'. Kautilya uses
another significant word, akasa yodhinah, which has been translated
as `persons who are trained to fight from the sky'. The existence of
aerial chariots, in whatever form it might be, was so well-known
that it found a place among the royal edicts of Emperor Asoka and
which were executed during his reign from
256-237 b.c.

It is interesting to note that the Academy of Sanskrit Research in
Melkote, near Mandya, had been commissioned by the Aeronautical
Research Development Board, New Delhi, to take up a one-year study
on `Non-conventional Approach to Aeronautics', on the basis of
Vaimaanika Shastra. As a result of the research, a glass-like
material which cannot be detected by radar has been developed by
Prof. Dongre, a research scholar of Benaras Hindu University. A
plane coated with this unique material cannot be detected using
radar.

But perhaps the most interesting thing about the Indian science of
aeronautics and Bharadwaja's research in the field was that they
were successfully tested in actual practice by an Indian over a 100
years ago. In 1895, full eight years before the Wright Brothers'
first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA, Shivkar Bapuji
Talpade and his wife gave a thrilling demonstration flight on
Chowpatty beach in Mumbai.

An even more astonishing feature of Talpade's aircraft was the power
source he used-an ion engine. The theory of the ion engine has been
credited to Robert Goddard, long recognised as the father of liquid-
fuel rocketry. It is claimed that in 1906, long before Goddard
launched his first modern rocket, his imagination had conceived the
concept of an ion rocket. But the fact is that not only had the idea
of an ion engine been conceived long before Dr Goddard, it had
also been materialised in the form of Talpade's aircraft.

Talpade, a resident of Mumbai, was an erudite scholar of Sanskrit
literature, especially of the Vedas, an inventor and a teacher in
the School of Arts. His deep study of the Vedas led him to construct
an aeroplane in conformity with the descriptions of the aircraft
available in the Vedas and he displayed it in an exhibition arranged
by the Bombay Art Society in the Town Hall. Its proving the
star attraction of the exhibition encouraged its maker to delve
deeper into the matter and see if the plane could be flown with the
aid of mercurial pressure.

For, the one hundred-and-ninetieth richa (verse) of the Rig Veda and
the aeronautical treatise of Bharadwaja mention that flying machines
came into full operation when the power of the sun's rays, mercury
and another chemicals called naksha rasas were blended together.
This energy was, it seems, stored in something like an accumulator
or storage batteries. The Vedas refer to eight different engines in
the plane and Bharadwaja adds that they
are worked by electricity.

Talpade carried on his research along these lines and constructed an
aeroplane. In his experiments he was aided by his wife, also a deep
scholar of the Vedic lore, and an architect-friend. The plane
combined the constructional characteristics of both Pushpaka and
Marut Sakha, the sixth and eighth types of aircraft described by
Bharadwaja. It was named Marut Sakha meaning "friend of
the wind".

With this plane, this pioneer airman of modern India gave a
demonstration flight on the Chowpatty beach in Mumbai in the year
1895. The machine attained a height of about 1,500 feet and then
automatically landed safely. The flight was witnessed, among many
others, by Shri Sayajirao Gaekwad, the Maharaja of Baroda
and Justice Govind Ranade and was reported in the Kesari, a leading
Marathi daily newspaper. They were impressed by the feat and
rewarded the talented inventor.

Unfortunately, Talpade lost interest in things after his wife's
death, and after his own death in 1917 at the age of 53, his
relatives sold the machine to the Rally Brothers, a leading British
exporting firm then operating in Mumbai. Thus, the first ever
attempt at flying in modern India, undertaken and made successful
by an Indian, in a plane of Indian manufacture and built to Indian
scientific specifications, slid into the limbo of oblivion.

(The writer can be contacted at shachi_rairikar@h...)

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