Did Indians
Invent Airplane?
Suresh Kodoor
Did Indians Invent Airplane? I can see the question evoking chuckles of
bemusement and even ridicule. I am sure, not only those who think rationally
and vouch by scientific temper but even those who got at least some traces of
commonsense and basic knowledge of history will be amused when such a question
is asked in this era, after well over hundred plus years since the Wright
brothers designed and successfully flew the first self-powered aircraft on 17th
Dec 1903. Well, that assumption holds well only when you are dealing with
people in their right senses, not with the people who are on the extreme right
of the ideological spectrum. For the right-wing ultra-nationalists in India,
airplane was invented by ancient Indians thousands of years ago. No amount of
reasoning or correction would deter them from continuously propagating the same
insanity. Be it in common public babbles or in dignified science forums where
serious intellectual deliberations are supposed to be the norm of the
proceedings.
These are not just illiterate or uneducated
ignorant lots. Those who indulge in such false and irrational propaganda
include ministers, political leaders, and those who decorate (or rather deface,
I must say) high public offices. It is
so shameful that the latest to join the bandwagon of these right-wing promoters
of unscientific and nonsensical ramblings is none other than the Minister of
State in charge of Human resource development in the country. He wants the
students at the centers of higher learning like IITs be taught about ‘Pushpaka
vimana’, the mythical airplane mentioned in the great Indian epic
Ramayana. Ministers after Ministers from
the right-wing BJP ruled states keep repeating such absurdities at regular
intervals without fail. Some of them go
to the extent of claiming that airplanes flew left and right in the Indian
airspace, even carrying out inter-planetary voyages, many thousands of years
ago before rest of the world even heard of the word ‘flying’. The proof? Well,
there is a mention about ‘Vimana’ in the text of Ramayana and that is a good
enough proof for them. When the country’s prime minister himself leads the pack
making a fool of self by boasting that Indians practiced plastic surgery even
in the pre-historic times citing Indian mythological stories about Lord
Ganesha’s head transplant with an elephant head, one cannot expect any better
from his ministerial and party colleagues. Such seemingly ridiculous attempts
to raise insane claims could have been brushed aside as misdeeds of a few
lunatics but for the fact that these dubious attempts are very calculated and
integral part of a larger venomous fascist agenda. It is a deliberate
jingoistic attempt to evoke misplaced nationalistic pride to farther the racist
and religious wedge in the society, a typical ultra-rightist strategy followed
world over. The ultra-nationalists who swear by a top-to-bottom divisive, racist,
retrogressive ideology idolize Goebbels and follow his methods to propagate and
spread their carefully fabricated lies. As long as they keep spreading the
venom, we are forced to be on constant vigil providing the necessary anti-venom
of facts and truths. Superstitions, myths and blatant lies become the most
potent tools in their constant effort to strengthen their power base by
polarizing the population on religious basis and eventually use that power to
protect the interest of the rich enabling vulgar accumulation of wealth in the
hands of the elite. Hence, these lies
cannot be left unexposed.
So, let us come back
to the question of airplane and debunk the claim once again. Did Indians invent
Airplane? Of course the answer is an absolute ‘No’. Then what about the mention of ‘Vimana’ in Ramayana and the existence so called
ancient texts that discuss airplanes?
For the starters, is Ramayana the only ancient
classic text that refers to flying? Not at all. There are many myths and
traditions from different parts of the world and civilizations that spoke about
flights in the ancient times. Babylonian mythology spoke about flying machines.
The stories of Daedalus and his son
Icarus in the Greek mythology are very popular. As detailed in the Greek
classic ‘Metamorphoses’ , Daedalus built two flying crafts, one for himself and
one for his son Icarus to be used in his mission of going home by air to evade
King Minas. Models
mimicking flying-objects have been discovered from different parts of the
world, including venezula, peru, columbia and so on. A model of a flying craft
emulating the form of a bird was discovered during an excavation of a tomb in
Egypt and was dated back to around 200-BC. Many of the engravings in the temple
of Seti in Egypt resemble modern-day aircrafts. Ancient Chinese mythology too
has mentions about flights. There are references to Chinese emperor Cheng Tang
having succeeded in building a flying craft way back in 1760 BC. He is said to
have subsequently destroyed the same to prevent anyone else discovering the
secret of flight. Nepali traditions too
have mentions about powered crafts and they thought only yavanas knew the real
secret of flights. So, the point is, many ancient civilizations had such
stories and they reflect human’s desire to fly and probably many of them
thought flying would indeed become possible some day. However, it will be childish to think that
those ancient civilizations did indeed build flying machines based on these
mythological references. In their mythical stories, gods flew in such flying
crafts. Many countries have myths about gods and stars descending from heaven
and copulating with women on the earth similar to the story in the epic
Mahabharath where the Princess Kunthi gets impregnated by the Sun god. We dont take those stories in their literal
sense in the modern times. Mythologies from all civilizations around the world
have numerous such illustrious stories that reflected human desire to overcome
their inherent limitations. Striking similarities of many of the gods and
goddesses, religious ideas, rituals, beliefs, traditions etc of ancient people in
different parts of the globe are not merely coincidental. As J.Garnier
observed, most of these were originally derived from a common source or
center. So, the mythical legend King
Ravana with a ‘Pushpak Vimana’ in the Ramayana is not a testimony to the
existence of flying crafts in india in the pre-historic times.
Another most commonly
made argument is about the existence of an ancient text named ‘vimanika
shastra’ (Science of Aeronautics) where aircraft designs have been discussed in
detail. People often talk about this book as if it is an ancient text dating
back by a few thousand years containing vedic designs of aircraft authored by
Saint Bharadwaja. But the truth is far from it. Research has proved that this
often mentioned text is in fact not even 100 years old, most likely written
sometime between 1918 and 1923. The book was written by one Subbaraya Shastry,
who was born in Hosur and later lived in the Anakel taluk in the state of
Karnataka. Shashtry died in the year
1941. The research study was conducted by Dr.Deshpande and his team from Indian
Institute of Science (IISc) in 1974 and they brought to the fore the real story
behind the book ‘vimanika shastra’ (A critical study of the work Vimanika
Shastra). They found out that a book named ‘Brihad Vimana Sastra’ was published
by an author named Brahmamuni Parivraja in the year 1959. This book has
Sanskrit slokas along with Hindi translations. Later in 1973, Mysore
International Sanskrit Research Center had also published another book by G.R
Josyer that included Sanskrit slokas along with English translations. Parivraja
had claimed in the preface that his book was based on an original script called
‘yantra sarvaswa’ authored by Maharshi Bharadwaja. However, in subsequent
investigation, it became clear that both Parivraja’s and Josyer’s books were
based on a common manuscript, the one written by Subbaraya Shastri, which was
available in the Sanskrit library in Baroda. The language and narrative style
proved that the book must have been written not more than 100 years ago. It may
be noted that none of the so called ‘airplane designs’ described in Sasthri’s
manuscript are tenable as far as its validity to build a working model of a
flying machine is concerned. None of the
planes have properties or capabilities of being flown; the geometries are
horrendous; and the principles of propulsion make them resist rather than
assist flying. These designs were simply his imaginative work and seem he
himself had doubts about the validity of those designs. As Shastry could not read or write
himself, he dictated the verses to one Mr. Venkatachala Sharma. The IISc team could personally meet Mr. Sharma as well as Venkatarama
shastry, the adopted son of Subbaraya Shastry as part of their research. So, in
short, the text ‘Vimanika Shastra’ often cited as an ancient text is only 100
years or so old and the designs in there are neither any ‘vedic designs’ nor
working models. People often circulate pictures from this book stating that
these are vedic designs of ancient airplanes.
The IISc research team has recorded in detail the life story of Mr.Subbaraya Shastry. He was a man of simplicity and of unpretentious nature and had to struggle throughout his life and brave some of the worst calamities that a man may have to endure in his life. He was born in a small village in Hosur and got married at the age of eight. He didnt have any formal education. His parents died early and he had to support his family literally by begging. His sisters and a brother died of smallpox. He himself got such a severe attack that he had to leave home and went on exile living in a forest for many years. There he seemed to have met with a guruji who cured his disease and imparted him with the secrets of many shastras. He claimed that he was enlightened by Maharishi Bharadwaja in the dream and got the knowledge on Vaimanika Shastra. Later, Shasthri settled near Anekal and also adopted Venkatarama Shastry as his son. Shastri had no formal education or training of any kind and learnt to read Kannada and Telugu after he returned from exile after his encounter with his Guruji. He dictated his book to G V Sharma after some 25 years after the stated psychic experience. He did not either mention his name in the book and it is written as if it was directly authored by Rishi Bharadwaja. Hence the confusion and people often refer to this book as one authored by Rishi Bharadwaja many thousands year ago. Shastry got the drawings done by one Mr.Ellappa, who was a draughtsman in a local engineering college then. Shastri seemed to have made several trips to Bombay talking to many people about his Vimanika Shastra.
One
of the enthusiasts Shastri seemed to have interacted with while in Bombay was
Mr.Shibkar Bapuji Talpade. Talpade was born in 1864 in Bombay and died
in 1916. Talpade tried to make
models under the guidance of Shastri, but he was not successful in making any
of them fly (of course the so called ‘vedic designs’ he relied on to build his
craft weren’t workable ones). The technical basis of these so called
Vedic Designs which was supposedly used by Talpade has been debunked by
research looking at the technological feasibility of such flights. The HRD
minister Mr.Satyapal Singh now (as he demanded in his address at an event
conducted by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in September,
2017) wants Talpade to be recognised as the Indian who invented aircraft first,
8 years before the Wright brothers did (Mr.Singh of course needs to make up his
mind first on whether Talpade invented the airplane in 1895 or it was already
invented 5000 years ago). Pictures from
this book are the ones people often circulate identifying them as vedic
aircraft designs (Shakuna Vimana and Rukma Vimana). When someone is hell-bent
on glorifying everything about the past for ulterior motives, absence of
evidences don’t bother them. They would simply fabricate evidences if there are
none.
We must remember that many people pursued the
dream of flying at different times and at different places. Along with Wright brothers, many others,
including Talpade, did try and make numerous attempts, especially towards the
end of 19th century and in the beginning of 20th century,
to build flying machines. Many
failed. Even Wright brothers have failed many times before they could hit upon
a working model. That is exactly how the
humankind has acquired new knowledge; by asking questions and engaging with
their surroundings through observations, experiments, evidences, failures and
refinements. Knowledge has no physical
boundaries and its proliferation helps to expand the collective wisdom of the
human race. We try to see farther standing on the shoulders of our predecessors
and we keep enriching and correcting ourselves with respect to our knowledge
about the universe we live in.
Studies and explorations about our past
generations and their civilizations should certainly be encouraged and it is to
our advantage and common good that we gather knowledge about our past. However,
such efforts should be guided within the framework of science and with an
objective of adding to the wealth of our common knowledge pool. The
contributions of ancient India to the fields of philosophy, astronomy,
mathematics, arts, health sciences and numerous other fields of learning are
well recognized by the world and these achievements do not belong to any one
group or community. These are all part of our common heritage and every Indian
has the right to be proud of being a descendant of such a great
civilization. However, we should be
honest and realistic enough to admit that we are way behind the developed
societies in this modern era in terms of our pursuance of new knowledge and in
our effort to harness scientific temper in our new generations. Our efforts
should be to closely watch and understand the trends in science and technology
world over and to make full use of those advances to better the lives of our people.
Living in the imaginary self-created cocoon of the fabricated past glory will
only leave us behind in the race towards advancement and progress. The
extremist rights in India must realize that they are doing a great disservice
to the nation by indulging in falsehood and pursuing a divisive and destructive
agenda.
Video: https://youtu.be/2SZDMapMtkk
sureshkodoor@gmail.com
