VEDIC AIRCRAFT: Myth or Truth?

The first aircraft was invented in 1895, and not 1903!

Marutsakha, the first unmanned aircraft, was flown by Shivkar Bāpuji Talpade in 1895. The word Marutsakha is derived from the Sanskrit word Marut, meaning air, and Sakha, meaning friend, making it the friend of the wind. This flight is assumed to have been able to fly to a height of 1,500 feet, piercing through the skies at 40,000km/hour, before it landed safely in the presence of scholarly audience members such as the famous Indian judge and nationalist, Mahadeva Govinda Ranade, and H H Sayaji Rao Gaekwad. Famous historian Evan Koshtka credits Mr. Talpade as the first inventor of an aircraft, which also used the Mercury Votex engine at the time.

Mr. Talpade had inherited the formulas/sutras to build an aircraft from Mr. Subraya Sastri. Mr. Talpade, who was himself a Sanskrit and a Vedic physics scholar, depended entirely on the four Vedas, which were composed about 10,000 years ago by Rishi Bharadwaja and the Rigvedic Bhashya Bhumika, as well as Vimanika Sashthra books, which detail the aeronautics.

Talpade prepared the Marutsakha’s vedic ion engine after learning the Yantrasarwaswa-Vaimanika Prakarana. He prepared Marutsakha, one of the Vimanas out of the eight different types explained. The theory of the Ion Engine has been credited to Robert Goddard, long recognized as the father of Liquid-Fuel Rocketry. It is claimed that in 1906, long before Goddard launched his first modern rocket, his imagination had conceived the idea of an Ion rocket. But, the fact is, not only had the idea of an Ion Engine been conceived long before Dr Goddard, it had also been materialized in the form of Talpade’s aircraft.

The Vaimanika Shastra describes in detail the ion engines which are being made by NASA today. Detailed information on the Mercury Votex engines can be found in the ancient Vedic text, Samaranga Sutradhara. The Indologist, William Clarendon, translated this Vedic text to give a detailed description of the Votex engines.

To conclude, it can be said that the Vaimanika Shastra, which was the world’s first Aeronautical Engineering guide, became the instrument for the development of the aircraft by Mr. Talpade. The existence of this text was revealed by Mr. G.R. Josyer.

Till date, we are not sure if the above facts regarding the Vaimanika Shastra are true; nevertheless, they serve as interesting food for thought.

Ref: English translation book by G.R.Josyer of 1973, http://4hindu.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-vimanas-indian-flying-machines.htm