Like almost all other bogus pronouncements regarding Vedic science the claim that airplanes and aeronautics are described in the Vedas has also been debunked. Scientists (Mukunda, Deshpande, Nagendra, Prabhu and Govindaraju) at the Indian Institute of Science published a nice research paper in 1974 refuting all assertions made at the current Indian Science Congress meeting about "Vymanika Shastra". These scientists were members of the faculty of the departments of Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India's premier scientific research center.
I printed out and read the Mukunda et al (1974) paper a couple of weeks back. It is a detailed examination of claims made in two books on the so-called Vymanika Shastra, which has nothing to do with the Vedas or any other standard ancient Indian text. The books originated from what a poor mystic called Pundit Subbaraya Shastry, who died in 1941 said aloud under a spell or whenever he got divine inspiration – some of which he might have learned from his guru. The recipes given in the books to construct these "planes" are hilarious. For example, urines of different animals such as elephant, cow and donkey are used as fuel for propulsion of the planes. The construction of the planes and purported mechanism violates Newton's laws of motion, which even a high school kid who has lit up pyrotechnical rockets during Ganesh Chaturthi will recognize. The pundit apparently used to go around parts of the country lecturing to gullible folk. He even teamed up with a man called Talpade in 1918 to build one of his "planes". By all sane indications the silly experiment was a failure. Talpade died immediately after this, and naturally, nobody tried to carry forward his quixotic quest. Unfortunately, involvement of politicians and religious leaders in academic and scientific affairs in India makes it difficult to properly educate the public and the younger generation about genuine achievements of ancient India and modern Indian science. Somehow the quacks, crackpots and spiritualists receive more attention. Scientific illiteracy among even the educated masses compounds the problem. This is also true in the U.S. with regard to teaching of evolution and distinctions between science and pseudoscience in medicine. But the sober and rational among us should know that if you try to study the history of human civilization on this planet you will realize that we (as in all of humankind) have progressed in a series of incremental steps, at least as far as science and technology is concerned (Steven Pinker has recently compiled convincing evidence that this is also true of morality). There has been stagnation at times, but no drastic reversals or resets. What this means is that at each step current knowledge was based on prior knowledge even in cases where insights were ahead of their times. In other words, you will not find a computer chip or a solid booster rocket engine buried in a 10,000 year-old archaeological dig anywhere in the world. You will only find materials and tools that were appropriate for the level of technology that was customary at that time. Similarly, all descriptions dealing with materials and processes in ancient texts will be consistent with what was locally available at the time. Even extrapolations into the world of imagination and fiction would be slight improvements over what was available in real life. If cow's urine was used in religious and cleansing rituals, then it is very likely that larger quantities of that same urine or that of a larger animal like an elephant would be used as fuel for an imaginary airplane. It is important to distinguish between historical and archaeological research, and modern pure or applied scientific research. The government ought to fund research into ancient Indian texts and sites as an archaeological endeavor to study the development of pre-scientific understanding in ancient India, as is being done in Central and South America, the Middle East, Egypt, Greece and Eastern Europe. But declaring outright that the texts contain advanced scientific knowledge and making it part of a Science Congress and Science education is absolutely foolish and shameful. Instead of making us feel proud of our heritage, it makes us feel ashamed of ourselves. An educated human being living in the 21st century is supposed to have at least a basic understanding of what science and rational thought is all about. If something violates the laws of physics or has no basis in established science then she ought to express strong skepticism against it, and demand overwhelming evidence in support of it, and welcome scientific scrutiny from scientists and experts. Here is a very nice article by a young Indian space scientist Ram Prasad Gandhiraman debunking the "Vedic" airplane nonsense and other such fraudulent pseudoscience that is being propagated by politicians and activists in India: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/others/sunday-read/Stop-scientific-distortion/articleshow/45744378.cms Cheers, Santosh ----- Original Message ----- > From: roger dsouza <rdsg2...@gmail.com> > To: > Cc: > Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 3:58 AM > Subject: [Goanet] Science Congress: Ancient India Had Planes > > *Science Congress: Ancient India Had Planes* > > > > Aeroplanes existed in India 7,000 years ago and they travelled from one > country to another and from one planet to another, the Indian Science > Congress was told on Sunday in a controversial lecture that examined > ancient aviation technology in the Vedas > > > > The hosting of the lecture, presented by Captain Anand J. Bodas, a retired > principal of a pilot training facility, had recently attracted criticism > from some scientists who said it undermined the primacy of empirical > evidence on which the 102-year-old Congress was founded. > > > > The lecture was presented on the second day of the Congress under the > aegis of Mumbai University as part of a symposium on "Ancient Sciences > through Sanskrit". > > > > Drawing upon the ancient Vedic texts to support the claim that there was > flying technology in ancient India, Bodas said, "There is a reference of > ancient aviation in the Rigveda." > > > > He said Maharishi Bharadwaj spoke 7,000 years ago of "the existence of > aeroplanes which travel from one country to another, from one continent to > another and from one planet to another. He mentioned 97 reference books for > aviation." > > > > "History merely notes that the Wright brothers first flew in 1904," he > said. > > > > Bharadwaj, who authored the book Vimana Samhita, had written about various > types of metal alloys used to build an aeroplane, Bodas said, adding, "Now > we have to import aeroplane alloys. The young generation should study the > alloys mentioned in his book and make them here," > > > > He also spoke of the "huge" aeroplanes which flew in ancient India. > "The > basic structure was of 60 by 60 feet and in some cases, over 200 feet. They > were jumbo planes," he said. > > > > "The ancient planes had 40 small engines. Today's aviation does not > know > even of flexible exhaust system," he said. > > > > The ancient Indian radar system was called 'rooparkanrahasya'. "In > this > system, the shape of the aeroplane was presented to the observer, instead > of the mere blimp that is seen on modern radar systems," he said. > > > > Bharadwaj's book mentioned a diet of pilots. It contained of milk of > buffalo, cow and sheep for specific periods, Bodas said. > > > > The pilot's dress cloth came from vegetation grown underwater, he said. > > > > An online petition by a scientist at the NASA research centre had demanded > that the scheduled lecture be cancelled as it mixes mythology with science. > > > > The comments by Bodas came a day after Union Minister for Science and > Technology Harsh Vardhan told the Congress that Algebra and the Pythagoras' > theorem both originated in India but the credit for these has gone to > people from other countries. > > > > The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), which hosts the annual > event, is a premier scientific organisation of India with a membership > strength of more than 30,000 scientists. It was founded in 1914 with the > objective to "advance and promote the cause of science in India." > > > > http://www.businessworld.in/news/science-and-technology/science-congress-ancient-india-had-planes/1686237/page-1.html > <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001HjI8SkinxJqdGMjYZfORa_M3VPbdp8ZYAXo0AEcsUZF-U0E0tjJVuTncCZaRsqUIf2W3sVac_LwqBdQKn_6CeSjHgWgBvXN_652lsj-kDDueBwq3XdqqfBpnVYERp46E2CBTdBrfQcj6H2B8QCpuPs1MVOBkaqHzwFZiVQNpwrnAKe0S1go-dL-AYFB_h5XwvBxoaPUvqkTXJy5K6IKVC0fTOupuCXov1IccECtaxlPOg5Yc8ncYXxnKivx1g_WofKNsnziV7lz1GRW8aYSPIbEOo4glBe4CSJIuXaQnG8-NXHrEzuNsOQ==&c=PKsifqUFPGsm2Xxi4MtPgoYd-4BQHfQJRdsYgRE9eOLLQDj7tnG4LA==&ch=_IdNjBxZpuR-l9MxcED4ubS_OFD6RgnRNzhi3-KePgrj2Ni-jL35Bg==> >
