Sunday 31 August 2014

"Bharata" - according to Sanskrit grammar "Bhah" implies luminescence or light of knowledge. And "Rata" means engaged to. So the complete word denotes a source of knowledge, a place dedicated to cultivation of wisdom.

This country of wisdom enlightened entire human civilization through the ages. Different forms of Arts, Music, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Medical Sciences, Architecture, Astronomy, Aeronautics and of course Philosophy - there is hardly any stream of knowledge which was not covered here.

Till now, whatever we have stated is a well known topic casually discussed. Many of you might have interest but don't have any opportunity to explore the truth, the primary reason being the lack of evidence. But, we promise you, if you have the tenacity, we will provide you the references as much as we have gathered or will in future. Though we will be concentrating on Ancient Aeronautics in this blog, a touch off some other topics seems necessary to be discussed as prologue. Let's go ahead!


  • As we all know, the Law of Gravitation was invented by Sir Isaac Newton in 1686. But, Bhaskaracharya II discussed "Aakrishti Shakti..", which includes both Gravitation and Gravity in one of the chapters - "Goladhyaya", verse 6 of his book "Siddhanta Shiromani" at least 500 years before Sir Newton.
  • In the same chapter of  "Siddhanta Shiromani", another popular mathematical derivation of Calculus can be found -  d(Sin x) = Cos dx => d/dx(Sin x) = Cos x
          Of course the narration was in the form of Sanskrit "shlokas". Interestingly, this is                   also a Newtonian invention discussed in 'Principia of Mathematica" in 1686 with                       Leibniz.
  • A revolutionary invention of Medical Science - Plastic Surgery - was well-practiced in ancient India since 1000 B.C. as we can find in "Sushrut Sanghita" by Sushrutacharya, the father of Surgery. Not only that, in 7th 'Mandala' of "Rigveda", a clear description of Steel Plating is present.
  • Many of us know about a 24 feet high iron pillar of Chandraraja of near Qutub Minar Delhi, a surprise of modern scientists due to its noncorrosive nature. It has been standing there since last 2000 years approx. without any rust, which has been possible by presence of excessive Phosphorus, minimum Sulphur and absence of Manganese with pure Iron. The details composition can be found in "Vigyaner Itihas" by Dr. Samarendranath Sen.

Now, let us focus our attention on our tittle subject - Aeronautics from Ancient India.

There are so many references available in ancient Indian text that, it compels us to cultivate this chapter. The most common reference in this regard is "Pushpak Vimana" of Ramayana. 

Besides this popular story (?), below are the reference from "Rigveda" - 


Mandala
Sukta
Mantra
10
39
12
10
85
-
1
116
2
1
34
8,9
1
46
4
6
58
3
9
14
1
3
14
1
4
36
1
5
41
6

One of them being - 



Mahabharata tells us about Space Travel of Arjuna, destruction of Tripura etc. in "Vanaparva", "Dronaparva" and "Karnaparva". Few more source of information can be found in -
The Puranas; The "Artha Shaastra" of Kautilya; The inscription of Ashoka; The writings of Kalidasa; Mahavangsha; Buddhacharita; Samarangana Sutradhar of King Bhoj.

All of these were mythological stories only, or there is some truth behind ???

In 1875, a manuscript was discovered from a place near Mysore (Karnataka, India), named " Vymaanika Shaastra" by Maharshi Bharadwaja, written in 4th - 5th century B.C. approx. This is originally a chapter only named, "Vymaanika Prakarana" of the main text "Yantra Sarvasya". Though the said chapter is preserved with Mysore Sanskrit Library, but unfortunately none of the other seven chapters of this text is available to us. In 1973 The Aeronautical Society of Mysore published this text along with English translation in supervision of Mr. G. R. Josyer.

However, this chapter contains 40 "sutras" (formulae) and 17 "adhikaranas" (notes). They vividly describes the process, construction details and mechanisms of Aeroplanes of that era. The construction procedure of 113 types of air planes were discussed there. The main 4 of them are - 






Among these four, the Tripura was able to move in air, water and land. Those planes were mainly constructed with Steel but the reference of ' "Trinetra" metals' ("Soumya", "Soundalaka" and " Mourtwika") was also mentioned there. They were basically alloys and 16 such alloys were being used then. 

Seven types of motors were used to produce seven different types of energy, like - Electric generator of switch(page 52 of "Vymaanika Saashtra"), Solar energy (produced by 192 types of lenses including Infrared absorbing Lens) etc., to fly the planes in speed even upto 3600 mph. Surprisingly, the Mercury Vortex engine, which has recently been adopted by NASA in their spaceships, was discussed there.

In addition to these technical details, we can find aerial routes, instruction for the pilots with their suggested food habit and dress code. The reference of "Vimanadrishyakaranah Rahsyam" (Stealth Bomber), Wireless System, Satelite imaging, Radar system, Damage detection system, cooling device, folding device to adjust the size of the aeroplanes etc. ultra-modern machinery makes us astonished undoubtedly.

Can you think of making an aeroplane depending on these "sutra"s?? Sounds crazy, nah?!

But it happened!!

A great son of our country, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade made this possible in 1895 at the Chowpathy Beach of Mumbai in front of a crowd including some eminent personalities based on "Rigveda sutra"s. This was happened 8 years before the first successful aeroplane.

If you think we should pay tribute to this unsung hero in his 150th birth anniversary this year, please join us @ "Uttaran" - 



The English version of the above pamphlet goes below - 




Please find the invitation card below - 








English version lies below -





If you would like to experience this event, please mail us @ rajib.ancientscience@gmail.com and of course stay tuned to get more updates.

A big thanks to all for being there @ Nazrul Mancha on 28th Sep.  and/or supporting us generously. Those who could not attend the event for various reasons, here is a few initial snapshots, more to come - 


Our Delegates - (from Right to Left) Prof. Dileep Kr. Kanjilal (in front of microphone), Prof. Pradip Kr. Majumdar, Prof. Binayak Samadder Chowdhury, Dr. Sarengi.


Books Published - A Selected Articles of Gurugobinda Chakravarti on Ancient and Medieval Indian Mathematics - Compiled & Edited by Prof. Pradip Kr. Majumdar & Shree Rajib Chakraborty, "Manober Aadi Janmobhumi : Ek Shotobarshikee Khonj" - by Shree Rajib Chakraborty.

Prof. Majumdar delivering his speech

Our Documentary video collage presentation - "Marutsakha"



Sorry for the long silence..here is the trailer of that presentation which we published in youtube 26th of January '15..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNmUBfkcdqQ&feature=youtu.be

Stay tuned and please be supportive as always!

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