Vimanas

[Michael Witzel]

Re Vimaana:

I have a partial photocopy of :

maharSibharadvAjapraNIta
bRhadvimAnazAstra
arthAt
maharSibharavAjapraNIta "yantrasarvasva" granthAntargata
yatibodhAnanadakRtazlokavaddhavRttisahita "vaimAnika prakaraNa"  (sic)
priyagrantamAlApuSpa 46
brahmanunigranthamAlA - puSpasaMkhyA 17

Unfortunately I have only pp. 242-344; text is in Skt Shlokas, with Hindi
summaries, always after a number of verses.
I vaguely remember, from 10 years ago, that the author says in the
introduction that he did not have a manuscript but "received the text".


The classic on this matter, is  however, by our famous Indian colleague,
the late V. Raghavan of Madras.

He wrote a c. 20 pp. paper on vimaanas in ancient Indian texts, published
by the Mythic Society of Bangalore, some 20-30 years ago. Unfortunately I
don't have my copy now, gave it to a scientist friend. But it can be found
out from the bibliography of V.Raghavan, published as a separate book,

(Bibliography of the books, papers & other contributions of Dr. V.
Raghavan, Professor of Sanskrit, University of Madras. With the foreword of
S. Radhakrishnan and the introd. of D.H.H. Ingalls.  Ahmedabad, New Order
Book Co. [1968] )


Quoting strictly *from memory*, of some 10 years ago: King Bhoj'as
Bhojaprabandha (Malwa, c. 1050 CE) has a chapter on Vimaanas, with detailed
descriptions such as :

~~~ Build a wooden bird, put seven pots of mercury inside and heat them,
and it will fly, except that you also need the mantra which I will not tell
you  since then, everyone could build one.
However, if you really want to know, go to the masters in this craft, the
Yavanas. ~~~


Which,incidentally, should also teach those a lesson who want to find
airplanes in the Atharvaveda (none in our computer files of teh Saunaka and
Paippalaada recension of the AV).
Or,are the tucked away in a appendix to the appendix of the AV,
(Atharvaveda Paris'ista), --- just like the recently 'discovered'
mathematical  Sutras??






=====

Dominik Wujastyk:

>I think this has come up before, but for good measure, cf.
>
>Mahar.si bhardvaaja pra.niita
>ya.mtrasarvasve
>Vimaana Prakara.nam
>
>sa.m"sodhaka
>"Srii Bhuvane"svarii Pii.thaadhii"sa
>Aacaarya "srii Cara.natiirtha Mahaaraaja
>
>Muulya 0-75
>
>"Srii Bhuvane"svarii Prakaa"sana
>Go.m.dala-Sauraa.s.tra, Bhaarata
>
>The book's colophon dates it to sa.mvat 2008

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Michael Witzel                          Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies
Harvard University                  www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs
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