Aeroplanes existed in India 7,000 years ago and they travelled from not just one country to another but also to other planets, or so claimed Captain Anand J Bodas in a controversial session at the Indian Science Congress. The retired principal of a pilot training facility attracted criticism from some scientists who said such claims 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 session titled '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, has 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 blip 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 clothes came from vegetation grown underwater, he said.
Bodas' wasn't the only controversial paper presented at the session. As this Times of India report points out, another paper pointed out that "Indians had developed 20 types of sharp instruments and 101 blunt ones for surgeries, which largely resemble the modern surgical instruments," while another spoke of how "ancient Indian engineers had adequate knowledge of Indian botany and they effectively used it in their construction."
The session had courted controversy even ahead of the conference, when Dr Ram Prasad Gandhiraman, a scientist with the Nasa's Ames Research Centre in California, filed an online petition demanding that the session be cancelled because it fused science with mythology.
05/01/15 First Post
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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, has 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 blip 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 clothes came from vegetation grown underwater, he said.
Bodas' wasn't the only controversial paper presented at the session. As this Times of India report points out, another paper pointed out that "Indians had developed 20 types of sharp instruments and 101 blunt ones for surgeries, which largely resemble the modern surgical instruments," while another spoke of how "ancient Indian engineers had adequate knowledge of Indian botany and they effectively used it in their construction."
The session had courted controversy even ahead of the conference, when Dr Ram Prasad Gandhiraman, a scientist with the Nasa's Ames Research Centre in California, filed an online petition demanding that the session be cancelled because it fused science with mythology.
05/01/15 First Post
