Text: In the Vedic literature of India, there are many descriptions of flying machines that are generally called vimanas (vimdnas). These fall into two categories: 1 - manmade craft that resemble airplanes and fly with the aid of birdlike wings, and 2 - unstreamlined structures that fly in a mysterious manner and are generally not made by human beings. The machines in category 1 are described mainly in medieval, secular Sanskrit works dealing with architecture, automata, military siege engines, and other mechanical contrivances. Those in category 2 are described in ancient works such as the Rg-Veda, the Mahabharata (Mahdbhdrata), the Ramayana (Rdmdyana), and the Puranas (Purdnas). The Bhdgavata Purdna, the Mahdbhdrata, and the Rdmdyana are three important works in the Vedic tradition of India and contain a great deal of interesting material involving the aerial vehicles called vimanas. The ancient Indian epics describe a vimana as a double-deck, circular aircraft with portholes and a dome, much as we would imagine a flying saucer. It flew with the "speed of the wind" and gave forth a Œmelodious sound¹. There were at least four different types of vimanas; some saucer shaped, others like long cylinders (Œcigar shaped airships¹). "They also describe different races of human-like beings; Devas, Asuras, Gandharvas, Uragas, and Raksasas; who operate these vehicles, and they discuss the social and political relationships existing in ancient times between these beings and humans of this Earth. To some, this material is of no value because it seems fantastic and mythological. "One time while King Citaketu was traveling in outer space on a brilliantly effulgent airplane given to him by Lord Vishnu, he saw Lord Siva...The arrows released by Lord Siva appeared like fiery beams emanating from the sun globe and covered the three residential airplanes, which could then no longer be seen." - Srimad Bhagasvatam, Sixth Canto, Part 3 "An aerial chariot, the Pushpaka, conveys many people to the capital of Ayodhya. The sky is full of stupendous flying machines, dark as night, but picked out by lights with a yellowish glare." - Mahavira of Bhavabhuti "Now Vata's (Aryan god of wind) chariot's greatness! Breaking goes it, and thunderous is its noise, to heaven it touches, makes light lurid [a red fiery glare], and whirls dust upon the earth." - Rig-Veda The more typical vimanas had flight characteristics resembling those reported for UFOs, and the beings associated with them were said to possess powers similar to those presently ascribed to UFO entities. An interesting example of a vimana is the flying machine which Salva, an ancient Indian king, acquired from Maya Danava, an inhabitant of a planetary system called Taltala. The following are excerpts from the Mahabharata: "The cruel Salva had come mounted on the Saubha chariot that can go anywhere, and from it he killed many valiant Vrishni youths and evilly devastated all the city parks." "Dense arrows of flame, like a great shower, issued forth upon creation, encompassing the enemy....A thick gloom swiftly settled upon the Pandava hosts. All points of the compass were lost in darkness. Fierce winds began to blow. Clouds roared upward, showering dust and gravel. Birds croaked madly...the very elements seemed disturbed. The sun seemed to waver in the heavens. The earth shook, scorched by the terrible violent heat of this weapon. Elephants burst into flame and ran to and fro in a frenzy...over a vast area, other animals crumpled to the ground and died. From all points of the compass the arrows of flame rained continuously and fiercely." "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 flame as bright as the thousand suns rose in all its splendour...An iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas....The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. The hair and nails fell out; pottery broke without apparent cause, and the birds turned white....After a few hours all foodstuffs were infected.... To escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment..." It would seem that the Mahabharata is describing an atomic war! References like this one are not isolated; but battles, using a fantastic array of weapons and aerial vehicles are common in all the epic Indian books. One even describes a vimana-Vailix battle on the Moon! The above section very accurately describes what an atomic explosion would look like and the effects of the radioactivity on the population. Jumping into water is the only respite. When the Rishi City of Mohenjo-Daro was excavated by archaeologists in the last century, they found skeletons just lying in the streets, some of them holding hands, as if some great doom had suddenly overtaken them. These skeletons are among the most radioactive ever found, on a par with those found at Hiroshima and Nagasaki! Furthermore, Mohenjo-Daro was found to be a well planned city laid on a grid, with a plumbing system superior to those used in Pakistan and India today; and curiously, the streets were littered with 'black lumps of glass'. These globs of glass were discovered to be clay pots that had melted under intense heat! Do the vimanas represent an ancient aerial technology that utilizes the forces of nature (such as transient geophysical electrical fields) to effect human consciousness and alter the perception of reality? The Chinese texts also speak of ancient aircraft. Taoist tales often tell of adepts or immortals flying through the air. The 'xian' were immortals capable of flight under their own divine power. They were said to be feathered, and a term that has been used for Taoist priests is 'yu ke', meaning 'feathered guest'. The 'fei tian', which might be translated as 'flying immortals', also appear in early tales, adding to the numbers of airborne beings in the Chinese mythological corpus. The Chinese tales of 'fei che', flying vehicles, exhibit the first understanding, perhaps, that humans could fly only with some kind of technological apparatus. A hymn written in the second century B.C. speaks of deities appearing in chariots drawn by flying dragons. So, it seems that the concept of aircraft in ancient times was not limited to only the Egyptians. Both the African and Asian continents provide telling proof, and so do the Americas.

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