Aeronautics in Ancient India?

[sudheer birodkar]

Dear Mr. Dominique,

I am both amused and bemused by your reply. 

I have no desire to start any debate. My only desire in sending that 
mail on Vimana Shastra was to examine if at all there is any proof of 
the existence of such devices in ancient times in all cultures. And as I 
happen to be an Indian, I am more familiar with Indian History.Hence the 
query in the context of India.

But that does not make me any less a connoisseur of say French History. 
Had I been French, I would have done the same with French history as 
then I would have been more familiar with french History without any 
bias against anyone.

Though this is not the subject of the present mail, I should mention 
here that I have also keenly studied French History of the period of the 
revolution till Napoleon, and as a student, was for quite some time 
under the spell of Rousseau's "Social Contract" and Voltaire's Lettres 
Philosophiques and Candide. To get a better feel of French history, I 
had also learnt French for two years. Although it has been many years 
since my dalliance with French history, it did make me a francophile of 
sorts for some time. 

You seem to have mistaken my query about the Vimana Shastra as a threat 
to non-Indians with some device Indians had and they could resurrect to 
destroy "enemies. Far from the point.

I consider myself to be as much French, "Mon Ami" as any other, As much 
British, or American, Chinese, Russian - for that matter.

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam "The World is my Family" is what any sensible 
individual will believe in - I certainly do and hope so do you.

Hope this mail clears any misunderstanding that my mail seems to have 
created in your mind.

Au Revoir

Sudheer
_____________

Sudheer Birodkar,
Mumbai (Bombay) 400 063. 
INDIA. Tel: +91-22-8733827.

Asatoma_Sad_Gamaya, 
Tamasoma_Jyotir_Gamaya.

Lead me from falsehoods to Truth,
And from Ignorance to Enlightenment.


>From indology-request at liverpool.ac.uk Thu Jun 26 11:16:25 1997
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>Subject: Re: Aeronautics in Ancient India?
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>At 14:31 +0200 26/06/97, sudheer birodkar wrote:
>>Pranaam,
>>
>>I am looking for information on aeronautics in ancient
>>India. I am told that there is a book called Brihat Vimana
>>Samahita in Sanskrit. I am looking for more information on this
>>subject. Can someone throw light on any Sanskrit literature (or
>>English Translations of any Sanskrit treatise) in this area of
>>study.
>>
>>I hear that in the year 1911, a device based on this oral tradition 
was
>>constructed and was flown at Mumbai Chowpatty in the presence of many
>>people, including Lokmanya Tilak. This was reported in the Tarun 
Bharat
>>Newspaper.
>>
>>Could the legend of the Pushpak Vimana mentioned in the Ramayana be
>>based on some factual device made
>>and  used in ancient India?
>>
>>Subham~astu
>>
>>Sudheer
>
>	Dear Sudheer,
>
>	Once again ?
>	I suppose
>	next months: vedic atomic bomb, vedic microsurgery, vedic big bang,
>vedic telecommunication satellites, vedic AIDS treatment and so ...
>	I'm not sure all this is in the scope of the list. Each time, you
>provoke a meaningless debate.
>	I'm sure the answers you'll have here will not be cited in your
>book. Why ask you ?
>
>	First I believed you was young and foolishly idealist, yet I
>believe you are dangerous. Please, write your nationalistic book with
>nationalistic sources, find a nationalistic editor, a nationalistic 
public
>and I hope you obtain a lot of money to buy a Vimana Task Force and to 
kill
>all barbarian foreigners in 'Bharat' with your Vajra Super Weapons: I'm 
not
>very much afraid.
>
>	And remember: after Yudhisthira was lying, his vimana touch the earth!
>
>Dominique
>
>Dominique THILLAUD
>Universite' de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France
>
>
>





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