Author:
Publication: The Week
Date: June 24, 2001
In the early 70s, G.R. Josyer of
the International Academy of Sanskrit in Mysore brought out the English
translation of a Sanskrit work, Vymanika Shastra. It describes different
types of aircraft with drawings, metals used for their production, mirrors
and their use in wars and varieties of machines and yantras.
The book was supposed to be only
a fortieth of the Yantra Sarwasa by Sage Bharadwaja. A Hindi translation
of the book titled Brihad Vimana Shastra by Shri Brahmamuni Parivrajaka
was published earlier in 1959. This, however, did not have mechanical drawings.
Brihad Vimana Shastra was written
on the basis of two manuscripts-one at Rajakiya Sanskrit Library, Baroda,
in 1944 and another with a signature of Go Venkatachala Sharma with dates
19.8. 1919 and 3.6. 1919 inscribed on it.
Josyer, in his introduction to Vymanika
Shastra, states that Pandit Subbaraya Shastry of Anekal dictated the verses
to G.V. Sharma. Shastry apparently was endowed with mystical powers. An
Air Commodore called Goel procured the manuscript for the Baroda University
Library in 1944 and it was featured at an exhibition of rare manuscripts
in Mysore in 1951. Josyer bought it and brought out a translation. He mentioned
in his introduction that the work was several thousand years old.
Prof. H.S. Mukunda and his team
from the departments of aeronautical and mechanical engineering of the
Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore traced Shastry's adopted son.
They learnt that Shastry had also written his autobiography, apparently
inspired by the famous scientist J.C. Bose.
Shastry's early life was full of
misery. He was born in Hosur and having lost his parents, he had to take
care of his siblings. Circumstances forced them apart and a fatal illness
almost crippled him. Starvation drove him to Kolar, where a great saint
cured him of his illness. Initiating him to spirituality, the saint revealed
to him the secrets of shastras like Vimana Shastra, Bhautik Kala Nidhi
and Jala Tantra.
Shastry made several trips to Mumbai
and dictated many parts of Vimana Sastra there. He got the drawings of
the aircraft made by a draughtsman called Ellappa between 1900 and 1919.
Shastry, who had no formal schooling, learnt to read and write Telugu and
Kannada only after meeting his guru.
Mukunda and team, who published
their report in 1974, found that the author showed a complete lack of understanding
of the dynamics of flight. The aircraft were poor concoctions rather than
expressions of anything real.
The drawings of Shakuna Vimana,
in the shape of a bird, show parts like a cylinder, piston worm gear and
pumps which seem entirely beyond the 18th century. As for the function
of the wings and tail, the Sanskrit text gives great importance to the
tail portion for the generation of lift whereas it is the wings that contribute
to the lift and the tail to its controllability.
The Sundar Vimana, described in
detail, has no basic principles of operation mentioned. And whatever has
been inferred from the drawings and the descriptions of the machinery defies
the laws of Newton.
The Rukma Vimana was the only one
which made sense. It had long vertical ducts with fans on the top to suck
air from the top and send it down the ducts, generating a lift in the process.
The Tripura Vimana is supposed to fly in air and move over water and land.
When moving over water the wheels are to be retracted.
The scientists concluded that none
of the planes had properties or capabilities of being flown.
