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Vimana

[vi-mah-nuh]

A vimāna (विमान) is a mythical flying machine, described in the Sanskrit epics. In books by Srila Prabhupada, they are referred to as "airplanes" or "spiritual airplanes".

Etymology and usage

Sanskrit vi-māna literally means "measuring out, traversing" or "having been measured out". It can refer to (ref Monier-Williams):

The palace of an emperor or supreme monarch (especially one with seven stories)
The adytum of a Rama temple, or of any other temple
A temple or shrine of a particular form, see Vimanam (tower)
From that meaning, "a god's palace", Rāvana's flying palace Pushpaka in the Ramāyana.
From that, a chariot of the gods, any mythical self-moving aerial car (sometimes serving as a seat or throne, sometimes self-moving and carrying its occupant through the air; other descriptions make the Vimana more like a house or palace, and one kind is said to be seven storeys high.
From that, any chariot or vehicle (especially a bier)
In medicine, the science of (right) measure or proportion (e.g. of the right relation between the humours of the body, of medicines and remedies etc.)
In the Vimanavatthu, a small piece of text used as the inspiration for a Buddhist sermon.
In some modern Indian languages, vimāna or vimān means "aircraft", for example in the town name Vimanapura (a suburb of Bangalore).

In Sanskrit literature

Vedas

The predecessors of the flying vimanas of the Sanskrit epics are the flying chariots employed by various gods in the Vedas: the Sun (see Sun chariot) and Indra and several other Vedic deities are transported by flying wheeled chariots pulled by animals, usually horses (but the Vedic god Pūsan's chariot is pulled by goats, as is that of Norse Thor).

The Rigveda does not mention Vimanas, but verses RV 1.164.47-48 have been taken as evidence for the idea of "mechanical birds":

47.

48.

"Dark the descent: the birds are golden-coloured; up to the heaven they fly robed in the waters.

Again descend they from the seat of Order, and all the earth is moistened with their fatness."

"Twelve are the fellies, and the wheel is single; three are the naves. What man hath understood it?

Therein are set together spokes three hundred and sixty, which in nowise can be loosened." (trans. Griffith)

In Dayananda Saraswati's "translation", these verses become:

"jumping into space speedily with a craft using fire and water ... containing twelve stamghas (pillars), one wheel, three machines, 300 pivots, and 60 instruments.

But likelier in the original Indian symbolism when that hymn was composed, the wheel is a year, the 12 "fellies" are months (lunations), and the 360 spokes are days.

Ramayana

In the Ramayana, the pushpaka ("flowery") vimana of Ravana is described as follows:

"The Pushpaka chariot that resembles the Sun and belongs to my brother was brought by the powerful Ravana; that aerial and excellent chariot going everywhere at will .... that chariot resembling a bright cloud in the sky ... and the King [Rama] got in, and the excellent chariot at the command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere.'

It is the first flying vimana mentioned in Hindu mythology (as distinct from the gods' flying horse-drawn chariots).

Pushpaka was originally made by Maya for Kubera, the God of wealth, but was later stolen, along with Lanka, by his half-brother, the demon king Ravana.

Mahabharata

One example in the Mahabharata is that the Asura Maya had a Vimana measuring twelve cubits in circumference, with four strong wheels. Apart from 'blazing missiles', the poem records the use of other deadly weapons. 'Indra's Dart' (Indravajrā) operated via a circular 'reflector'. When switched on, it produced a 'shaft of light' which, when focused on any target, immediately 'consumed it with its power'.

In one exchange, the hero, Lord Krishna, is pursuing his enemy, Salva, in the sky, when Salva's Vimana, the Saubha, is made invisible in some way. Undeterred, Lord Krishna immediately fires off a special weapon: "I quickly laid on an arrow, which killed by seeking out sound".

The Mahabharata compliments "the all-knowing Yavanas" (sarvajnaa yavanaa, the Greeks), as the creators of the vimanas: The Yavanas, O king, are all-knowing; the Suras are particularly so (sarvajnā yavanā rajan shurāz caiva vishesatah).

In pseudoscience and UFOlogy

Much Indian aeronautical matter popularly attributed to the Mahabharata is actually taken from these sources:

The Vaimanika Shastra: it is an alleged ancient text on aeronautics, "channeled" in 1918-1923, and published in 1973, which started the enthusiasm for "Vedic UFOs".
Speculations based on Mahabharata and other old Indian writings: see http://www.uforq.asn.au/articles/indianepics.html, which refutes several such misinterpretations.

Theories and opinions arising from the Vaimanika Shastra follow.

An example is the statement that "Gurkha flying in his swift and powerful Vimana hurled against the three cities of the Vrishnis and Andhakas a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousands suns, rose in all its splendour. It was the unknown weapon, the Iron Thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas."

Some modern UFO enthusiasts (like Desmond Leslie, co-author with George Adamski, in 1953, of one of the first books on UFOs entitled Flying Saucers Have Landed) have pointed to the Vimana as evidence for advanced technological civilizations in the distant past, or as support for ancient astronaut theories. Others have linked the flying machines to the legend of the Nine Unknown Men.

A symposium on "Science and Technology in ancient India" was organised in December 1990 at B.M. Birla Science Center at Hyderabad, A.P., India. Many topics of ancient Indian aeronautics were discussed. The Vaimanika Prakaranam in Vimana Vignana deals with instruments like Guha Garbha Darsha Yantra which can locate objects hidden underground from an aircraft. A semiconductor ferrite named Chumbaka radiates microwave signals and detects hidden objects.

Italian ufologist, Roberto Pinotti presented a paper on 'Aeronautics in ancient India' in the World Space Conference conducted at Bangalore. He told the conference delegates that those aircraft were similar to modern jet-propelled aeroplanes. He agreed that they represent the most complex and sophisticated designs. Others such as Dileep Kumar Kanjilal in Vimana in Ancient India : Aeroplanes Or Flying Machines in Ancient India (1985) prefer ion thruster propulsion.

David Hatcher Childress has written about 'Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology' and 'Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India and Atlantis', and Stephen Knapp endorses the concept in 'The Secret Teachings of the Vedas'.

According to Ufology literature, Alexander the Great purportedly gave a description of "two silver disk-like objects" entering and leaving the Jaxartes River. Alexander, so the story goes, then became obsessed with the craft and spent many hours in a primitive diving bell searching for them. The earliest source of this tale seems to be Frank Edwards, Stranger than Science (1959):

He [Alexander] tells of two strange craft that dived repeatedly at his army until the war elephants, the men, and the horses all panicked and refused to cross the river where the incident occurred. What did the things look like? His historian describes them as great shining silvery shields, spitting fire around the rims [...] things that came from the skies and returned to the skies.

Edwards gives no source for his account, and no ancient account of Alexander's campaign has a comparable description.

A similar story, occurring in Tyre rather than Transoxania, is alleged in an Italian article of 1966, also without giving a source.

In popular culture

Vimanas have appeared in books, films, internet and games including:

Grant Morrison's Vimanarama features vimanas.
Vimana (video game) is an arcade game from Toaplan
Interstellar propulsion system called "Vimana Drive" is used in the space exploration game Noctis
Vimanas is the second highest ship available for purchase in the popular PC game Tradewinds Legends. The ship is fairly accurate to the description of an aerial chariot of the gods. This ship is a flying type.
Vimana http://ufo.egrd.net A contemporary look at the scientific validity of this technology.
The psy-trance producers Etnica released 'Vimana' in 1997 with samples drawn from the film 'Roswell', which includes references to UFOs and alien life forms.
Gouryella, a former trance duo, used Vimana as one of their aliases.
The film "The Objective", by Daniel Myrick, where some US soldiers search for an unknown threat, which finally proves to be the Vimanas.
In Fate/zero, Archer has a nuclear-powered vimana in his arsenal.