Vimanas - Vaimanika Shastra
Title page of the English
translation of Vyamanika Shastra published in 1973
The Vaimānika Shāstra वैमानिक शास्त्र
("Science of Aeronautics" ; also Vimanika, Vymanika) is an early
20th century Sanskrit text on aeronautics, claimed to be obtained by mental
channeling, about construction of vimānas, the "chariots of the
Gods", self-moving aerial cars mentioned in the Sanskrit epics.
The existence of the text was revealed in 1952 by G.
R. Josyer, according to whom it is due to one Pandit Subbaraya Shastry,
who dictated it in 1918-1923. A Hindi translation was published in 1959,
the Sanskrit text with an English translation in 1973. It has 3000 shlokas
in 8 chapters and was attributed by Shastry to Maharishi
Bharadvaja,  which makes it of purportedly "ancient" origin,
and hence it has a certain notability in ancient astronaut theories.
A study by aeronautical and mechanical engineering
at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1974 concluded that the aircraft
described in the text were "poor concoctions" and that the author showed
a complete lack of understanding of aeronautics. 
Origin and publication
Subbaraya Shastry was a mystic from Anekal, who was
reputed to speak out verses (slokas) whenever he got inspiration,
described by Josyer as "a walking lexicon gifted with occult perception".
According to Josyer, he dictated the text to G. Venkatachala Sharma in
the early 1900s (completing it in 1923).
Subbaraya Shastry died in 1941, and Venkatachala took
his manuscripts into keeping. The Vaimanika Shastra manuscript appeared
at Rajakiya Sanskrit Library, Baroda by 1944. The text was published
in Hindi in 1959  and later in English by G.R. Josyer, titled Vymanika
Shastra. Josyer's edition, also added illustrations drawn by T. K.
Ellappa, a draughtsman at a local engineering college in Bangalore, under
the direction of Shastry, which had been missed in the 1959 edition. 
Its existence was first announced publicly in a 1952
press release by G.R. Josyer, who had founded his "International Academy
of Sanskrit Research" in Mysore the year before. In the foreword to the
1973 publication that contained the full Sanskrit text with English translation,
Josyer quotes a 1952 press release of his which was "published in all the
leading dailies of India, and was taken up by Reuter and other World Press
Mr. G. R. Josyer, Director of the International
Academy of Sanskrit Research in Mysore, in the course of an interview recently,
showed some very ancient manuscripts which the Academy had collected. He
claimed that the manuscripts were several thousands of years old, compiled
by ancient rishis, Bharadwaja, Narada and others, dealing, not with the
mysticism of ancient Hindu philosophy of Atman or Brahman, but with more
mundane things vital for the existence of man and progress of nations both
in times of peace and war. [...] One manuscript dealt with Aeronautics,
construction of various types of aircraft for civil aviation and for warfare.
[...] Mr. Josyer showed some types of designs and drawing of a helicopter-type
cargo-loading plane, specially meant for carrying combustibles and ammunition,
passenger aircraft carrying 400 to 500 persons, double and treble-decked
aircraft. Each of these types had been fully described.
Josyer then tells how he was visited by "Miss Jean Lyon,
journalist of Toronto and New York" for an interview, and how Lyon in her
Just Half a World Away (1954) concluded that he was "guilty of a
rabid nationalism, seeking to wipe out everything since the Vedas".
A critical review pronounced Josyer's introduction
to be "least scholarly by any standards." and said that "the people connected
with publication – directly or indirectly – are solely to blame either
for distorting or hiding the history of the manuscripts." perhaps in an
attempt to "eulogise and glorify whatever they can find about our past,
even without valid evidence". By tracing the provenance of the manuscript,
interviewing associates of S. Shastry (including G. V. Sharma to whom the
text was originally dictated), and based on the linguistic analysis of
the text, the review concluded that it came into existence sometime between
1900 and 1922.
Structure and content
An illustration of the
Shakuna Vimana that is supposed to fly like a bird with hinged wings and
Unlike modern treatises on aeronautics that begin by discussing
the general principles of flight before detailing concepts of aircraft
design, the Vaimanika Shastra straightaway gets into quantitative
description, as though a particular aircraft is being described. The topics
covered include, "definition of an airplane, a pilot, aerial routes, food,
clothing, metals, metal production, mirrors and their uses in wars, varieties
of machinery and yantras, planes like ‘mantrik’, ‘tantrik’, and
‘kritak’" and four planes called Shakuna, Sundara, Rukma,
and Tripura are described in greater detail. The extant text is
claimed to be only a small (one-fortieth) part of a larger work Yantra
Sarvaswa ("All about machines) composed by Maharishi
Bharadwaj and other sages for the "benefit of all mankind".
In 1991, the English portion and the illustrations
from the Josyer book were reprinted by David Hatcher
Childress in Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India & Atlantis
as part of the Lost Science Series. According to Childress, the
8 chapters treat the following:
The propulsion of the Vimanas according to Kanjilal (1985)
is by a "Mercury Vortex Engines", apparently a concept similar to electric
propulsion. Childress finds evidence for this "mercury vortex engine" in
Sutradhara, an 11th century treatise on architecture.
The secrets of constructing aeroplanes, which will not
break, which cannot be cut, will not catch fire, and cannot be destroyed.
The secret of making planes motionless.
The secret of making planes invisible.
The secret of hearing conversations and other sounds in
The secret of retrieving photographs of the interior of
The secret of ascertaining the direction of enemy planes
The secret of making persons in enemy planes lose consciousness.
The secret of destroying enemy planes.
J. B. Hare of the Internet
Sacred Text Archive in 2005 compiled an online edition of Josyer's
1973 book, in the site's "UFOs" section. In his introduction, Hare writes
The Vymanika Shastra was first committed
to writing between 1918 and 1923, and nobody is claiming that it came from
some mysterious antique manuscript. The fact is, there are no manuscripts
of this text prior to 1918, and nobody is claiming that there are.
So on one level, this is not a hoax. You just have to buy into the assumption
that 'channeling' works. ... there is no exposition of the theory of aviation
(let alone antigravity). In plain terms, the VS never directly explains
how Vimanas get up in the air. The text is top-heavy with long lists of
often bizarre ingredients used to construct various subsystems. ... There
is nothing here which Jules Verne couldn't have dreamed up, no mention
of exotic elements or advanced construction techniques. The 1923 technical
illustration based on the text ... are absurdly un-aerodynamic. They look
like brutalist wedding cakes, with minarets, huge ornithopter wings and
dinky propellers. In other words, they look like typical early 20th century
fantasy flying machines with an Indian twist.
A 1974 study by researchers at the Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore found that the heavier-than-air aircraft
that the Vaimanika Shastra described were aeronautically unfeasible.
The authors remarked that the discussion of the principles of flight in
the text were largely perfunctory and incorrect, in some cases violating
laws of motion. The study concluded:
Any reader by now would have concluded the
obvious – that the planes described above are the best poor concoctions,
rather than expressions of something real. None of the planes has properties
or capabilities of being flown; the geometries are unimaginably horrendous
from the point of view of flying; and the principles of propulsion make
then resist rather than assist flying. The text and the drawings do not
correlate with each other even thematically. The drawings definitely point
to a knowledge of modern machinery. This can be explained on the basis
of the fact that Shri Ellappa who made the drawings was in a local engineering
college and was thus familiar with names and details of some machinery.
Of course the text retains a structure in language and content from which
its 'recent nature' cannot be asserted. We must hasten to point out that
this does not imply an oriental nature of the text at all. All that may
be said is that thematically the drawings ought to be ruled out of discussion.
And the text, as it stands, is incomplete and ambiguous by itself and incorrect
at many places.
The authors expressed puzzlement at the contradiction
and errors in the Vaimanika Shastra text, especially since its compilers
supposedly had access to publications that did not make such errors (such
as, Dayanand Saraswati's commentary on the
Rigveda published in 1878 or earlier).
on the topic of Vimanas";
Shastry & Josyer 1973
Childress (1991), p. 109
of fancy? (Part X of XII)". The
Mukunda 1974, p. 2.
Swami Brahmamuni Parivrajaka, Brihad Vimana Shastra,
Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha. Dayanand Bhavan, New Delhi, 1959.
Shastry & Josyer
Childress (1991), p. 249
Mukunda 1974, p. 11
Mukunda 1974, p. 12
Mukunda, H.S.; Deshpande, S.M., Nagendra, H.R., Prabhu,
A. and Govindraju, S.P. (1974). "A
critical study of the work "Vyamanika Shastra"". Scientific Opinion:
A.S. Shastry, G.R. Josyer, Vymanika Shastra - Pronouncements
of Maharshi Bhradwaja (1973) 
Dileep Kumar Kanjilal, Vimana in Ancient India : Aeroplanes
Or Flying Machines in Ancient India, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar (1985).
Hatcher Childress, Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India, Adventures
Unlimited Press (1991), ISBN
Ancient Indian Vimanas
and Modern Mercury Vortex Technology
This article deals with vimanas that are running on
a mercury vortex propulsion system. This system is developed by, created
by Bill Clendenon, an inventor of the mercury vortex propulsion system.
Clendenon explains that the vimana was an ancient Indian aircraft, mention
in variuous Vedic scriptures. This was a machine driven by a now unconventional
manner. The mercury vortex propulsion engine.
The workings of the mercury vortex
David hatcher Childress has explained a bit further,
the theory of the mercury vortex technology. I will quote it here in full:
The basic turbo-pump engine has four main sections: compressor,
combustion, or heating chambers, turbo-pump and exhaust. Burning gases
are exhausted through the turbo-pump wheel to generate power to turn the
The electromagnetic field coil, which consists of the
closed circuit exchanger / condenser coil circuit containing the liquid
metal mercury and / or its hot vapor, is placed with its core axis vertical
to the craft.
A ring conductor (directional gyro-armature) is placed
around the field coil (heat exchanger) windings so that the core of the
vertical heat exchanger coils protrudes through the center of the ring
When the electromagnet (heat exchanger coils) is energized,
the ring conductor is instantly shot into the air, taking the craft as
a complete unit along with it.
If the current is controlled by a computerized resistance,
(rheostat), the ring conductor armature and craft can be made to hover
or float in the Earth's atmosphere.
The electromagnet hums and the armature ring (or torus)
becomes quite hot. In fact, if the electrical current is high enough, the
ring will glow dull red or rust orange with heat.
The phenomenon (outward sign of a working law of nature)
is brought about by an induced current effect identical with an ordinary
As the repulsion between the electromagnet and the ring
conductor is mutual, one can imagine the craft being affected and responding
to the repulsion phenomenon as a complete unit.
Lift or repulsion is generated because of close proximity
of the field magnet to the ring conductor. Clendenon says that lift would
always be opposed to the gravitational pull of the planet Earth, but repulsion
can also be employed to cause fore and aft propulsion.'(David hatcher Childress
Important is that this mercury vortex propulsion model
is intented for terrestrial flight only. The strange ball of light that
is often seen by UFO like craft, is the ball of light that surrounds a
craft is: the magneto-hydrodynamic plasma, a hot continuously recirculating
air flow through the ship's gas turbine which is ionized (electrically
conducting). Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is described by Childress as an
ionized gas that is passed through a magnetic field to generate electricity.
(Childress (2000), p.182)
Propellant tanks will be filled with liquid air (obtained
directly from the atmosphere by on-board reduction equipment).
Liquid air may be injected into expansion chambers and
heated by the metal working-fluid mercury confined in a boiler coupled
to a heat exchanger.
The super heated M.H.D. plasma (or air) will expand through
propellant cooled nozzles.
The ship may recharge its propellant tanks with liquid
air and condensate water collected directly from the upper atmosphere by
the on-board reducing plant.
This effect of the ball of light makes the craft
to appear alive and breathing. The reason why ships disappear from view
is according to Clendenon: The ionized bubble of air surrounding the UFO
may be controlled by a computerized rheostat so the ionization of the air
may shift through every color of the spectrum, obscuring the aircraft from
view. (Childress (2000), p. 181)
Here is a scientific view on the socalled invisiblility
of aerial craft. All these ideas are taken from an ancient manuscript the
Vimaana Shaastra. In this manuscript there are many detailed characteristists
about what could very possible have been mercury vortex generators. These
mercury vortex generators could have been used in various types of vimanas.
Dangers of mercury vortex propulsion
Clendenon points out the danger of this mercury vortex
propulsion system. When the liquid metal mercury is heated, it gives forth
a hot vapor. This hot vapour is deadly poisonous, because; '... if the
liquid metal mercury is made radioactive and heated sufficiently to emit
radiation, any leaks in the mercury would, therefore, be a double danger
to the crew and maintenance personnel of any vehicle powered by a mercury
vapor turbine.'(Quoted from the book by Bill Clendenon and David Hatcher
Childress, Mercury: UFO Messengers of the Gods, 1990, p. 85)
UFOs and Vimanas
By Stephen Knapp
In supplying information about the advancements of
Vedic science, the subject of Vedic airplanes, vimanas, is almost in a
classification of its own. Some of this information is so amazing that
for some people it may border science fiction. Nonetheless, as we uncover
and explain it, it provides serious food for thought.
First of all we need to understand that the Vedic conception
of universal time is divided into different periods. For example, a period
called one day of Brahma is equivalent to 4,320,000,000 of our years on
earth. Brahma's night is equally as long and there are 360 of such days
and nights in one year of Brahma. Each day of Brahma is divided into one
thousand cycles of four yugas, namely Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga,
and finally the Kali-yuga, which is the yuga we are presently experiencing.
Satya-yuga lasts 1,728,000 years, and is an age of purity when all residents
live very long lives and can be fully developed in spiritual understanding
and mystical abilities and remarkable powers. Some of these abilities,
or mystic siddhis, include changing one's shape, becoming very large or
microscopically small, becoming very heavy or even weightless, securing
any desirable thing, becoming free of all desires, or even flying through
the sky to wherever one wanted to go on one's own volition. So at that
time, the need for mechanical flying machines was not necessary.
As the yugas continued, the purity of the people, along
with their mystical abilities, decreased by 25% in each age. The age of
Treta-yuga lasts 1,296,000 years. During that age, the minds of humanity
became more dense, and the ability for understanding the higher spiritual
principles of the Vedic path was also more difficult. Naturally, the ability
to fly through the sky by one's own power was lost. After Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga
lasts 864,000 years, and Kali-yuga lasts 432,000 years, of which 5,000
have now already passed. At the end of Kali-yuga, the age of Satya-yuga
starts again and the yugas continue through another cycle. One thousand
such cycles is one day of Brahma. Now that we are in Kali-yuga, almost
all spiritual understanding disappears, and whatever mystical abilities
that remain are almost insignificant.
It is explained that it was not until the beginning
of Treta-yuga that the development of vimanas took place. In fact, Lord
Brahma, the chief demigod and engineer of the universe, is said to have
developed several vimanas for some of the other demigods. These were in
various natural shapes that incorporated the use of wings, such as peacocks,
eagles, swans, etc. Other vimanas were developed for the wiser human beings
by great seers of Vedic knowledge.
In the course of time, there were three basic types
of vimanas. In Treta-yuga, men were adept in mantras or potent hymns. Thus,
the vimanas of that age were powered by means of knowledge of mantras.
In Dvapara-yuga, men had developed considerable knowledge of tantra, or
ritual. Thus, the vimanas of Dvapara-yuga were powered by the use of tantric
knowledge. In Kali-yuga, knowledge of both mantra and tantra are deficient.
Thus, the vimanas of this age are known as kritaka, artificial or mechanical.
In this way, there are three main types of vimanas, Vedic airplanes, according
to the characteristics of each yuga.
Of these three types, there is listed 25 variations
of the mantrika vimanas, 56 variations of the tantrica vimanas, and 25
varieties of the kritakaah vimanas as we find today in Kali-yuga. However,
in regard to the shape and construction, there is no difference between
any of these vimanas, but only in how they were powered or propelled, which
would be by mantras, tantras, or mechanical engines.
The controversial text known as Vimaanika Shastra,
said to be by Maharshi Bharadwaja, also describes in detail the construction
of what is called the mercury vortex engine. This is no doubt of the same
nature as the Vedic Ion engine that is propelled by the use of mercury.
Such an engine was built by Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, based on descriptions
in the Rig-veda, which he demonstrated in Mumbai (Bombay), India in 1895.
I more fully explained this in Chapter Three of this volume. Additional
information on the mercury engines used in the vimanas can be found in
the ancient Vedic text called the Samarangana Sutradhara. This text also
devotes 230 verses to the use of these machines in peace and war. We will
not provide the whole description of the mercury vortex engine here, but
we will include a short part of William Clendenon's translation of the
Samarangana Sutradhara from his 1990 book, Mercury, UFO Messenger of the
"Inside the circular air frame, place the mercury-engine
with its electric/ultrasonic mercury boiler at the bottom center. By means
of the power latent in the mercury which sets the driving whirlwind in
motion, a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in the sky in
a most marvelous manner. Four strong mercury containers must be built into
the interior structure. When those have been heated by controlled fire
from iron containers, the vimana develops thunder-power through the mercury.
At once it becomes like a pearl in the sky."
This provides a most simplistic idea of the potential
of the mercury engines. This is one kind of a propulsion mechanism that
the vimanas of Kali-yuga may use. Other variations are also described.
Not only do these texts contain directions on how to make such engines,
but they also have been found to contain flight manuals, aerial routes,
procedures for normal and forced landings, instructions regarding the condition
of the pilots, clothes to wear while flying, the food to bring and eat,
spare parts to have, metals of which the craft needs to be made, power
supplies, and so on. Other texts also provide instructions on avoiding
enemy craft, how to see and hear what occupants are saying in enemy craft,
how to become invisible, and even what tactics to use in case of collisions
with birds. Some of these vimanas not only fly in the sky, but can also
maneuver on land and fly into the sea and travel under water.
There are many ancient Vedic texts that describe or
contain references to these vimanas, including the Ramayana, Mahabharata,
Rig-veda, Yajur-veda, Atharva-veda, the Yuktilkalpataru of Bhoja (12th
century A.D.), the Mayamatam (attributed to the architect Maya), plus other
classic Vedic texts like the Satapathya Brahmana, Markandeya Purana, Vishnu
Purana, Bhagavata Purana, the Harivamsa, the Uttararamcarita, the Harsacarita,
the Tamil text Jivakacintamani, and others. From the various descriptions
in these writings, we find vimanas in many different shapes, including
that of long cigars, blimp-like, saucer-shapes, triangular, and even double-decked
with portholes and a dome on top of a circular craft. Some are silent,
some belch fire and make noise, some have a humming noise, and some disappear
These various descriptions are not unlike the reports
of UFOs that are seen today. In fact, David Childress, in his book Vimana
Aircraft of Ancient India & Atlantis, provides many reports, both recent
and from the last few hundred years, that describe eye witness accounts
of encounters with UFOs that are no different in size and shape than those
described in these ancient Vedic texts. Plus, when the pilots are seen
close up, either fixing their craft or stepping outside to look around,
they are human-like, sometimes with a Oriental appearance, in clothes that
are relatively modern in style. In other reports, we have read where the
craft may have alien type beings on board along with ordinary humans navigating
Does this mean that these are ancient vimanas that
still exist today? Are they stored in some underground caverns somewhere?
Or are they simply modern-built, using the ancient designs as described
in the Vedic texts? The UFOs that have been seen around the world may not
be from some distant galaxy, but may be from a secret human society, or
even military installation. However, many of the Vedic texts do describe
interplanetary travel. So even if these space machines are from some other
planet, they may be using the same principles of propulsion that have already
been described in the universal Vedic literature. The answer awaits us.
Vedic Vimanas - 8 Years Before
the Wright Brothers
Shivkar Bapuji Talpade
Orville Wright demonstrated on December 17th 1903 that
it was possible for a ‘manned heavier than air machine to fly’. But,
in 1895, eight years earlier, the Sanskrit scholar Shivkar Bapuji Talpade
had designed a basic aircraft called Marutsakthi (meaning Power of Air)
based on Vedic technology and had it take off unmanned before a large audience
in the Chowpathy beach of Bombay. The importance of the Wright brothers
lies in the fact, that it was a manned flight for a distance of 120 feet
and Orville Wright became the first man to fly. But Talpade’s unmanned
aircraft flew to a height of 1500 feet before crashing down and the historian
Evan Koshtka, has described Talpade as the ‘first creator of an aircraft’.
As the world observes the one hundredth anniversary
of the first manned flight, it is interesting to consider the saga of India’s
19th century first aircraft inventor for his design was entirely based
on the rich treasury of India’s Vedas. Shivkar Bapuji Talpade was born
in 1864 in the locality of Chirabazar at Dukkarwadi in Bombay.
He was a scholar of Sanskrit and from his young age
was attracted by the Vaimanika Sastra (Aeronautical Science) expounded
by the great Indian sage Maharishi Bhardwaja. One western scholar of Indology
Stephen-Knapp has put in simple words or rather has tried to explain what
Talpade did and succeeded!
According to Knapp, the Vaimanika Shastra describes
in detail, the construction of what is called, the mercury vortex engine
the forerunner of the ion engines being made today by NASA. Knapp adds
that additional information on the mercury engines can be found in the
ancient Vedic text called Samaranga Sutradhara. This text also devotes
230 verses, to the use of these machines in peace and war. The Indologist
William Clarendon, who has written down a detailed description of the mercury
vortex engine in his translation of Samaranga Sutradhara quotes thus ‘Inside
the circular air frame, place the mercury-engine with its solar mercury
boiler at the aircraft center. By means of the power latent in the heated
mercury which sets the driving whirlwind in motion a man sitting inside
may travel a great distance in a most marvellous manner. Four strong mercury
containers must be built into the interior structure. When these have been
heated by fire through solar or other sources the vimana (aircraft) develops
thunder-power through the mercury.
NASA (National Aeronau-tical and Space Administra-tion)
world’s richest/ most powerful scientific organisation is trying to create
an ion engine that is a device that uses a stream of high velocity electrified
particles instead of a blast of hot gases like in present day modern jet
engines. Surprisingly according to the bi-monthly Ancient Skies published
in USA, the aircraft engines being developed for future use by NASA by
some strange coincidence also uses mercury bombardment units powered by
Solar cells! Interestingly, the impulse is generated in seven stages. The
mercury propellant is first vapourised fed into the thruster discharge
chamber ionised converted into plasma by a combination with electrons broke
down electrically and then accelerated through small openings in a screen
to pass out of the engine at velocities between 1200 to 3000 kilometres
per minute! But so far NASA has been able to produce an experimental basis
only a one pound of thrust by its scientists a power derivation virtually
useless. But 108 years ago Talpade was able to use his knowledge of Vaimanika
Shastra to produce sufficient thrust to lift his aircraft 1500 feet into
According to Indian scholar Acharya, ‘Vaimanika Shastra
deals about 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 3000 slokas including 32 techniques to fly an aircraft.
In fact, depending on the classifications of eras or Yugas in modern Kaliyuga
aircraft used are called Krithakavimana flown by the power of engines by
absorbing solar energies!’ It is feared that only portions of Bharadwaja’s
masterpiece Vaimanika Shas-tra survive today.
The question that comes to one’s mind is, what happened
to this wonderful encyclopaedia of aeronautical knowledge accumulated by
the Indian savants of yore, and why was it not used? But in those days,
such knowledge was the preserve of sages, who would not allow it to be
misused, just like the knowledge of atomic bombs is being used by terrorists
According to scholar Ratnakar Mahajan who wrote a brochure
on Talpade. ‘Being a Sanskrit scholar interested in aeronautics, Talpade
studied and consulted a number of Vedic treatises like Brihad Vaimanika
Shastra of Maharishi Bharadwaja Vimanachandrika of Acharya Narayan Muni
Viman yantra of Maharish Shownik Yantra Kalp by Maharishi Garg Muni Viman
Bindu of Acharya Vachaspati and Vimana Gyanarka Prakashika of Maharishi
Dhundiraj’. This gave him confidence that he can build an aircraft with
mercury engines. One essential factor in the creation of these Vedic aircraft
was the timing of the Suns Rays or Solar energy (as being now utilised
by NASA) when they were most effective to activate the mercury ions of
the engine. Happily for Talpade Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad of Baroda a
great supporter of the Sciences in India, was willing to help him and Talpade
went ahead with his aircraft construction with mercury engines. One day
in 1895 (unfortunately the actual date is not mentioned in the Kesari newspaper
of Pune which covered the event) before an curious scholarly audience headed
by the famous Indian judge/ nationalist/ Mahadeva Govin-da Ranade and H
H Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Talpade had the good fortune to see his un manned
aircraft named as ‘Marutsakthi’ take off, fly to a height of 1500 feet
and then fall down to earth.
But this success of an Indian scientist was not liked
by the Imperial rulers. Warned by the British Government the Maharaja of
Baroda stopped helping Talpade. It is said that the remains of the Marutsakthi
were sold to ‘foreign parties’ by the relatives of Talpade in order
to salvage whatever they can out of their loans to him. Talpade’s wife
died at this critical juncture and he was not in a mental frame to continue
with his researches. But his efforts to make known the greatness of Vedic
Shastras was recognised by Indian scholars, who gave him the title of Vidya
Talpade passed away in 1916 un-honoured, in his own
As the world rightly honours the Wright Brothers for
their achievements, we should think of Talpade, who utilised the ancient
knowledge of Sanskrit texts, to fly an aircraft, eight years before his
Original from: http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/dec16/snt2.asp