
By
David Hatcher Childress
(source: Technology of
the Gods - The Incredible
Sciences of the Ancients p 147-209)
Nearly every Hindu and Buddhist in the world - hundreds of millions of
people has heard of the ancient flying machines referred to in the
Ramayana and other texts as vimanas. Vimanas are mentioned even
today in standard Indian literature and media reports. An article
called “Flight Path” by the Indian journalist Mukul Sharma
appeared in the major newspaper The Times of India on
April 8, 1999 which talked about vimanas and ancient warfare:
according to some interpretations of surviving texts, India’s future
it seems happened way back in the past. Take the case of the Yantra
Sarvasva, said to have been written by the sage Maharshi Bhardwaj.
This consists of as many as 40 sections of which one, the Vaimanika
Prakarana dealing with aeronautics, has 8 chapters, a hundred topics
and 500 sutras. In it Bhardwaj describes vimana, or aerial
aircrafts, as being of three classes:
1. those that travel from
place to place;
2. those that travel from one country to another;
3. those that travel between planets.
Of special concern among
these were the military planes whose functions were delineated in
some very considerable detail and which read today like something
clean out of science fiction. For instance, they had to be:

Impregnable, unbreakable,
non-combustible and indestructible capable of coming to a dead stop
in the twinkling of an eye; invisible to enemies; capable of
listening to the conversations and sounds in hostile planes;
technically proficient to see and record things, persons, incidents
and situations going on inside enemy planes; know at every stage the
direction of the movement of other aircraft in the vicinity; capable
of rendering the enemy crew into a state of suspended animation,
intellectual torpor or complete loss of consciousness; capable of
destruction; manned by pilots and co-travelers who could adapt in
accordance with the climate in which they moved; temperature
regulated inside; constructed of very light and heat absorbing
metals; provided with mechanisms that could enlarge or reduce images
and enhance or diminish sounds.
Notwithstanding the fact
that such contraption would resemble a cross between an American
state-of-the-art Stealth Fighter and a
flying saucer, does it mean
that air and space travel was well known to ancient Indians and
airplanes flourished in India when the rest of the world was just
learning the rudiments of agriculture? Aerial battles and chases are
common in ancient Hindu literature. What did these airships look
like? The ancient Mahabharata speaks of a vimana as “an aerial
chariot with the sides of iron and clad with wings.” The
Ramayana
describes a vimana as a double-deck, circular (cylindrical) aircraft
with portholes and a dome. It flew with the “ speed of the wind”,
and gave forth a “melodious sound” The ancient Indians themselves
wrote entire flight manuals on the care and control of various types
of vimanas. The Samara Sutradhara is a scientific treatises dealing
with every possible facet of air travel in a vimana. There are
230
stanzas dealing with construction, take-off, cruising for thousands
of miles, normal and forced landings, and even possible collusions
with birds!
Would these texts exist (they do) without there being something to
actually write about? Traditional historians and archaeologists
simply ignore such writings as the imaginative ramblings of a bunch
of stoned, ancient writers.
Says Andrew Tomas, " The Samara Sutradhara, which is a
factual type of record, treats air travel from every angle…If this
is the science fiction of antiquity, then it is the best that has
ever been written.”
In 1875, the Vaimanika Shastra, a fourth century BC text written by
Maharshi Bhardwaj, was discovered in a temple in India. The
book dealt with the operation of ancient vimanas and included
information on steering, precautions for long flights, protection of
the airships from storms and lightning, and how to switch the drive
to solar energy, or some other “free energy” source, possibly some
sort of “gravity drive.”
Vimanas were said to take off vertically or dirigible.
Bharadwaj the
Wise refers to no less than 70 authorities and 10 experts of air
travel in antiquity. These sources are now lost. Vimanas were kept
in Vimana Griha, or hanger, were said to be propelled by a
yellowish-white-liquid, and were used for various purposes. Airships
were present all over the world. The plain of
Nazca in Peru is very
famous for appearing from the high altitude to be a rather
elaborate, if confusing airfield. Some researchers have theorized
that this was some sort of Atlantean outpost. It is
worth nothing that Rama Empire had its outposts: Easter Island,
almost diametrically opposite to
Mohenjo-Daro on the globe,
astonishingly developed its own written language, an obscure script
lost to the present inhabitants, but found on tablets and other
carvings. This odd script is found in only one other place in the
world: Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
Aerial Warfare in Ancient India
The ancient Indian epics go into considerable detail about aerial
warfare over 10,000 years ago. So much detail that a famous Oxford
professor included a chapter on the subject in a book on ancient
warfare!. According to the Sanskrit scholar V.R.Ramachandran
Dikshitar, the Oxford Professor who wrote “War in Ancient
India in 1944 “, no question can be more interesting in
the present circumstances of the world than India’s contribution to
the science of aeronautics. There are numerous illustrations in our
vast Puranic and epic literature to show how well and wonderfully
the ancient Indians conquered the air. To glibly characterized
everything found in this literature as imaginary and summarily
dismiss it as unreal has been the practice of both Western and
Eastern scholars until very recently. The very idea indeed was
ridiculed and people went so far as to assert that it was physically
impossible for man to use flying machines. But today what with
balloons, airplanes and other flying machines, a great change has
come over our ideas on the subject.”
Says Dr. Dikshitar,
“ …the flying
vimana of Rama or Ravana was set down as but a
dream of the mythographer till airplanes and zeppelins of the
present century saw the light of day. The mohanastra or the
“arrow of unconsciousness” of old was until very recently a creature
of legend till we heard the other day of bombs discharging Poisonous
gases.
We owe much to the
energetic scientists and researchers who plod persistently and carry
their torches deep down into the caves and excavations of old and
dig out valid testimonials pointing to the misty antiquity of the
wonderful creations of humanity.”
Dikshitar mentions
that in Vedic literature, in one of the Brahmanas, occurs the
concept of a ship that sails heavenwards. “The ship is the
Agniliotra of which the Ahavaniya and
Garhapatya fires represent the
two sides bound heavenward, and the steersman is the Agnihotrin who
offers milk to the three Agnis. Again, in the still earlier
Rig Veda Samhita we read that the Asvins conveyed the rescued
Bhujya safely
by means of winged ships. The latter may refer to the aerial
navigation in the earliest times.”
Commenting on the famous vimana text the Vimanika Shastra, he says:
In the recently published
Samarangana Sutradhara of Bhoja, a whole chapter of about 230
stanzas is devoted to the principles of construction underlying the
various flying machines and other engines used for military and
other purposes. The various advantages of using machines, especially
flying ones, are given elaborately. Special mention is made for
their attacking visible as well as invisible objects, of their use
at one’s will and pleasure, of their uninterrupted movements, of
their strength and durability, in short of their capability to do in
the air all that is done on earth. After enumerating and explaining
a number of other advantages, the author concludes that even
impossible things could be effected through them. Three movements
are usually ascribed to these machines, ascending, cruising,
thousands of miles in the atmosphere and lastly descending. It is
said that in an aerial car one can mount to the Surya-mandala,
travel throughout the regions of air above the sea and the earth.
These cars are said to move so fast as to make a noise that could be
heard faintly from the ground. Still some writers have expressed a
doubt and asked “Was that true?” But the evidence in its favor is
overwhelming.
Has the World Ended
Before?
Charles Berlitz, author of several books, including The
Bermuda Triangle, was the grandson of the founder of the
world-famous Berlitz schools, wrote:
"If
atomic warfare were
actually used in the distant past and not just imagined, there must
still exist some indications of a civilization advanced enough to
develop or even to know about atomic power. One does find in some of
the ancient writings of India some descriptions of advanced
scientific thinking which seemed anachronistic to the age from which
they come.
The Jyotish (400 B. C) echoes the modern concept of the earth's place
in the universe, the law of gravity, the kinetic nature of energy,
and the theory of cosmic rays and also deals, in specialized but
unmistakable vocabulary, with the theory of atomic rays. And what
was thousands of years before the medieval theologians of Europe
argued about the number of angels that could fit on the head of a
pin. Indian philosophers of the Vaisesika school were discussing
atomic theory, speculating about heat being the cause of molecular
change, and calculating the period of time taken by an atom to
traverse its own space.
Readers of the Buddhist pali sutra and commentaries, who studied them before modern times,
were frequently mystified by reference to the "tying together" of
minute component parts of matter; although nowadays it is easy for a
model reader to recognize an understandable description of molecular
composition."
(source: Doomsday 1999
- By Charles Berlitz p. 123-124).

Professor Dr. Dileep Kumar Kanjilal gave a brilliant lecture
with this title to the Sixth Congress of the Ancient Astronaut
Society in Munich in 1979. Kanjilal is a professor at the Calcutta
Sanskrit College and therefore a leading scholar in Sanskrit.
But if we follow the
history of idolatry in India we come across two important works, the
Kausitaki and the Satapatha Brahmana, dating from before 500 B.C.
and telling us about images of the gods.
Text and illustration
show forcefully that the gods were originally corporeal beings. But
how, and this question must be faced, did these gods reach the earth
through the atmosphere?
The Yujurveda quite
clearly tells of a flying machine, which was used by the Asvins (two
heavenly twins). The Vimana is simply a synonym for flying machine.
It occurs in the Yajurveda, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the
Bhagavata Purana, as well as in classical Indian literature.
At least 20 passages in
the Rig Veda (1028 hymns to the gods) refer exclusively to the
flying vehicle of the Asvins. This flying machine is represented as
three-storeyed, triangular and three –wheeled. It could carry at
least three passengers. According to tradition the machine was made
of gold, silver and iron, and had two wings. With this flying
machine the Asvins saved King Bhujyu who was in distress at sea.
Every scholar knows the Vaimanika Shastra, a collection of sketches
the core of which is attributed to Bharatvaj the Wise around the 4th
century B.C. The writings in the Vaimanika Shastra were rediscovered
in 1875. The text deals with the size and the most important parts
of the various flying machines. We learn how they steered, what
special precautions had to be taken on long flights, how the
machines could be protected against violent storms and lightning,
how to make a forced landing and even how to switch the drive to
solar energy to make the fuel go further. Bharatvaj refers to no
fewer than 70 authorities and ten experts of Indian air travel in
antiquity!
The description of these machines in old Indian texts are amazingly
precise. The difficulty we are faced with today is basically that
the texts mention various metals and alloys which we cannot
translate. We do not know what our ancestors understood by them. In
the Amarangasutradhara five flying machines were originally built
for the gods Brahma, Vishnu, Yama, Kuvera and Indra. Later there
were some additions. Four main types of flying Vimanas are
described: Rukma, Sundara, Tripura and Sakuna. The Rukma were
conical in shape and dyed gold, whereas the Sundata were like
rockets and had a silver sheen. The Tripura were three-storeyed and
the Sakuna looked like birds.
There were 113
subdivisions of these four main types that differed only in minor
details. The position and functioning of the solar energy collectors
are described in the Vaimanika Shastra. It says that eight tubes had
to be made of special glass absorbing the sun’s ray. A whole series
of details are listed, some of which we do not understand. The
Amaranganasutradhara even explains the drive, the controls and the
fuel for the flying machine. It says that quicksilver and ‘Rasa’
were used. Unfortunately we do not yet know what “Rasa’ was. Ten
sections deal with uncannily topical themes such as pilot training,
flight paths, the individual parts of flying machines, as well as
clothing for pilots and passengers, and the food recommended for
long flights. There was much technical detail: the metals used,
heat-absorbing metals and their melting point, the propulsion units
and various types of flying machines. The information about metals
used in construction name three sorts, somala, soundaalika and
mourthwika. If they were mixed in the right proportions, the result
was 16 kinds of heat-absorbing metals with names like ushnambhara,
ushnapaa, raajaamlatrit, etc. which cannot be translated into
English. The texts also explained how to clean metals, the acids
such as lemon or apple to be used and the correct mixture, the right
oils to work with and the correct temperature for them. Seven types
of engine are described with the special functions for which they
are suited and the altitudes at which they work best.
The catalogue is not short of data about the size of the machines,
which had storey, nor of their suitability for various purposes.
This text is recommended
to all who doubt the existence of flying machines in antiquity. The
mindless cry that there were no such things would have to fall
silent in shame. The ruined sites of Parhaspur have been the scene
of ‘divine’ air battles? Pyramids reminiscent of the Mayan pyramids
in the Central American jungles in the center of Parhaspur.
In 1979 a book by David
W. Davenport, an Englishman born in India, was published in
Italy. Its title was 2000 AC Diztruzione Atomica, Atomic
Destruction 2000. BC. Davenport claimed to have proof that
Mohenjo Daro,
one of the oldest cities in the history of human civilization, had
been destroyed by an atomic bomb.
Davenport shows that the
ruined site known as the place of death by archaeologists was not
formed by gradual decay. Originally
Mohenjo Daro,
which is more than 5000 years old, lay on two islands in the Indus.
Within a radius of 1.5 km Davenport demonstrates three different
degrees of devastation which spread from the center outwards.
Enormous heat unleashed total destruction at the center. Thousands
of lumps, christened ‘black stones’ by archaeologists, turned out to
be fragments of clay vessels which had melted into each other in the
extreme heat. The possibility of a volcanic eruption is excluded
because there is no hardened lava or volcanic ash in or near Mohenjo Daro.
Davenport assumed that the
brief intensive heat reached 2000 degree C. It made the ceramic
vessels melt.
He further says that in
the suburbs of
Mohenjo Daro
skeletons of people lying flat on the ground, often hand in hand
were found, as if the living had been suddenly overcome by an
unexpected catastrophe. In spite of the interdisciplinary
possibilities, archaeology works solely by traditional methods in Mohenjo Daro. They ought to use the former, for it would produce
results. If flying machines and a nuclear explosion as the cause of
the ruins are excluded out of hand, there can be no research by
enlarged teams with physicists, chemists, metallurgists, etc. As the
iron curtain so often falls on sites that are important in the
history of mankind, I cannot help feeling that surprising facts
endangering existing ways of thinking might and should be
discovered. A nuclear explosion 5000 years ago does not fit into the
scenario?

Erich Von Daniken author of the International Bestseller book,
Chariots of The Gods, writes:
" For example, how did
the chronicler of the Mahabharata know that a weapon capable of
punishing a country with a twelve years' drought could exist? And
powerful enough to kill the unborn in their mothers womb? This
ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata, is more comprehensive than the
Bible, and even at a conservative estimate its original core
is at least 5,000 years old. It is well worth reading this epic in the
light of the present day knowledge".
We shall not be surprised
when we learn in the Ramayana that Vimanas, i.e. flying machines,
navigated at great heights with the aid of quicksilver and a great
propulsive wind. The Vimanas could cover vast, distances and could
travel forward, upward and downward. Enviably maneuverable space
vehicles!.
This quotation comes from the translation by N. Dutt in 1891:
"At Rama's behest the magnificent chariot rose up to a mountain of
cloud with a tremendous din..". We cannot help noticing that
not only is a flying object mentioned again but also that the
chronicler talks of a tremendous din.
Here is another passage from the Mahabharata: "Bhisma
flew with his Vimana on an enormous ray which was as brilliant as
the sun and made a noise like the thunder of a storm." ( C.Roy
1899).
Even imagination needs
something to start off. How can the chronicler give descriptions
that presuppose at least some idea of rockets and the knowledge that
such a vehicle can ride on a ray and cause a terrifying thunder?.
Certain numerical data in
the Mahabharata are so precise that one gets the impression that the
author was writing from first-hand knowledge. Full of repulsion, he
describes a weapon that could kill all warriors who wore metal on
their bodies. If the warriors learned about the effect of this
weapon in time, they tore off all the metal equipment they were
wearing, jumped into a river, and washed everything they were
wearing, and everything they had come in contact with very
thoroughly. Not without reason, as the author explains, for the
weapons made the hair and nails fall out. Everything living, he
bemoaned, became pale and weak.
The Mahabharata says: "Time is the seed of the Universe."
In the Samarangana Sutradhara whole chapters are devoted to describing
airships whose tails spout fire and quicksilver. A passage from the
Mahabharata is bound to make us think:
"It was as if the elements
had been unleashed. The sun spun round. Scorched by the incandescent
heat of the weapon, the world reeled in fever. Elephants were set on
fire by the heat and ran to and fro in a frenzy to seek protection
from the terrible violence. The water boiled, the animals died, the
enemy was mown down and the raging of the blaze made the trees
collapse in rows as in a forest fire. The elephants made a fearful
trumpeting and sank dead to the ground over a vast area. Horses and
war chariots were burnt up and the scene looked like the aftermath
of a conflagration. Thousands of chariots were destroyed, then deep
silence descended on the sea. The winds, began to blow and the earth
grew bright. It was a terrible sight to see. The corpses of the
fallen were mutilated by the terrible heat so that they no longer
looked like human beings. Never before have we seen such a ghastly
weapon and never before have we heard of such a weapon. (C. Roy
1889).
(source: Chariots of The
Gods
By Erich Von Daniken p. 56
- 60).
For more on Mahabharata,
refer to chapter on Hindu Scriptures, War in Ancient India and
Yantras.

By
G. R. Josyer (excerpts)
Rahasyagnyodhikaaree - Sutra 2:
"The pilot is one who knows the
secrets"
Bodhaanada:
Scientists say that there are 32 secrets of the working of
the Vimana. A pilot should acquaint himself thoroughly with them
before he can be deemed competent to handle the airplane. He must
know the structure of the aeroplane, know the means of its take off
and ascent to the sky, know how to drive it and how to halt it when
necessary, how to maneuver it and make it perform spectacular feats in
the sky without crashing. Those secrets are given in "Rahashya
Lahari" and other works by Lalla and other masters, are are
described thus:
"The pilot should have had
training in maantrica and taantrica, kritaka and antaraalaka, goodha
or hidden, drishya and adrishya or seen and unseen, paroksha and
aparoksha, contraction and expansion, changing shape, look
frightening, look pleasing, become luminous or enveloped in
darkness, deluge or pralaya, vimukha, taara, stun by thunderstorm
din, jump, move zig-zag like serpent, chaapala, face all sides, hear
distant sounds, take pictures, know enemy maneuver, know direction
of enemy approach, stabdhaka or paralyze, and karshana or exercise
magnetic pull"
These 32 secrets the pilot
should learn from competent preceptors and only such a person is fit
to be entrusted with an airplane, and not others.
Some of these secrets are:
1. Goodha:
As explained in 'Vaayutatva-Prakarana', by harnessing the powers,
Yaasaa, Viyaasaa, Prayaasaa in the 8th atmospheric layer covering
the earth, to attract the dark content of the solar ray, and use it
to hide the Vimana from the enemy.
2. Drishya: By collision of the electric power and wind
power in the atmosphere, a glow is created, whose reflection is to
be caught in the Vishwa-Kriya-drapana or mirror at the front of the
Vimana, and by its manipulation produce a Maaya-Vimana or
camouflaged Vimana.
3. Vimukha:
As mentioned in "Rig-hridaya", by projecting the force of Kubera,
Vimukha and Vyshawaanara poison powder through the third tube of the
roudree mirror and turning the switch of the air mechanism, produce
wholesale insensibility and coma.
4. Roopaakarshana: By means of the photographic yantra in
the Vimana to obtain a television view of things inside an enemy's
plane.
5. Stabdhak: By projecting apasmaara poison fume smoke
through the tube on the north side on the Vimana, and discharging it
with stambhana yantra, people in enemy planes will be made
unconscious.
6. Chaapla: On sighting an enemy plane, by turning the
switch in the force center in the middle section of the Vimana, a
4087 revolutions an hour atmospheric wave speed will be generated,
and shake up the enemy plane.
7. Parashabda Graahaka: As explained in the "Sowdaaminee
Kalaa: or science of electronics, by means of the sound capturing
yantra in the Vimana, to hear the talks and sound in enemy planes
flying in the sky.
According to Shownaka, the
regions of the sky are 5, named,
-
Rekhaapathaha
-
Mandala
-
Kakshaya
-
Shakti
-
Kendra
In these 5 atmospheric regions,
there are 5,19,800
air ways traversed by Vimanas of the Seven Lokas or worlds, known as,
-
Bhooloka
-
Bhuvarloka
-
Suvarloka
-
Maholoka
-
Janoloka
-
Tapoloka
-
Satyaloka
Dhundinaatha and "Valalmeeki Ganita" state that
Rekha has
7,03,00,800 air routes.
-
Mandala has 20,08,00200 air routes
-
Kakshya has 2,09,00,300 air
routes
-
Shakti has 10,01,300 air routes
-
Kendra has 30,08,200
air routes
It discusses what kind of food to eat, clothing to wear,
metals for vimanas, purification of metals, deals with mirrors and
lenses which are required to be installed in the vimanas,
mechanical contrivances or yantras and protecting and different
types of vimanas.
(source:
Vymaanika
Shaastra Aeronautics of Maharshi Bharadwaaja
By G. R. Josyer
International Academy of Sanskrit Research 1973).
Stealth bomber from
Shastra
A glass-like material based on technology found in an ancient Sanskrit
text that could ultimately be used in a stealth bomber (the material
cannot be detected by radar) has been developed by a research
scholar of Benaras Hindu University. Prof M A Lakshmithathachar,
Director of the Academy of Sanskrit Research in Melkote, near
Mandya, told Deccan Herald that tests conducted with the material
showed radars could not detect it. “The unique material cannot be
traced by radar and so a plane coated with it cannot be detected
using radar,” he said.
The academy had been commissioned by the Aeronautical Research
Development Board, New Delhi, to take up a one-year study,
‘Non-conventional approach to Aeronautics,’ on the basis of an old
text, Vaimanika Shastra, authored by Bharadwaj. Though the period to
which Bharadwaj belonged to is not very clear, Prof Lakshmithathachar noted, the manuscripts might be more 1,000 years
old. The project aims at deciphering the Bharadwaj’s concepts in
aviation.
However, Prof Lakshmithathachar was quick to add that a
collaborative effort from scholars of Sanskrit, physics, mathematics
and aeronautics is needed to understand Bharadwaj’s shastra. The
country’s interest in aviation can be traced back over 2,000 years
to the mythological era and the epic Ramayana tells of a
supersonic-type plane, the Pushpak Vimana, which could fly at the
speed of thought. “The shastra has interesting information on
vimanas (airplanes), different types of metals and alloys, a
spectrometer and even flying gear,” the professor said. The shastra
also outlines the metallurgical method to prepare an alloy very
light and strong which could withstand high pressure.
He said, Prof Dongre of BHU had brought out a research paper
Amshubondhini after studying Vaimanika Shastra and developed the
material. “There have been sporadic efforts to develop aeronautics
in the country’s history. There has never been a holistic approach
to it. Vaimanika Shastra throws up many interesting details that can
benefit Indian aviation program,” the director added.
Prof Lakshmithathachar rubbished the tendency among certain
scholars to discount such ancient Sanskrit texts and said, “Why
would our scholars want to cheat future generations? Unless it was
important, nothing was written in the old days. The fact that there
exists manuscripts indicates the significance.” The academy
has also embarked on other projects including ‘Indian concept of
Cosmology’ with Indian Space Research Organization, ‘Iron &
Steel in Ancient India — A Historical Perspective’ with the
Steel Authority of India Limited, and ‘Tools & Technology of Ancient
India.’
(source: Stealth
bomber from shastra - deccan herald November 2, 02).
Did You know? Oppenheimer and Atom bomb in modern times
Only seven years after the
first successful atom bomb blast in New Mexico, Dr. Robert
Oppenheimer (1904-1967) Scientist, philosopher, bohemian, and
radical. A theoretical physicist and the Supervising Scientist of
the Manhattan Project, who was familiar with ancient Sanskrit
literature, was giving a lecture at Rochester University. During the
question and answer period a student asked a question to which
Oppenheimer gave a strangely qualified answer:
 |
Student: Was the
bomb exploded at Alamogordo during the Manhattan Project the first
one to be detonated?
Dr. Oppenheimer: "Well -- yes. In modern times, of course.
|
Charles Berlitz
goes on to quote a number of passages from the Mahabharata that
describe the impact of a weapon that I suspect must be the brahmaastra, although he neither names the weapon nor cites those
sections of the text from which his quotations are drawn (he lists
Protap Chandra Roy's translation of 1889 in his
bibliography):
...a single projectile
Charged with all the power of the Universe.
An incandescent column of
smoke and flame As bright as ten thousand Suns Rose in all its
splendor......it was an unknown weapon, An iron thunderbolt, A
gigantic messenger of death, Which reduced to ashes. The Entire race
of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas....the corpses were so burned As to
be unrecognizable. Their hair and nails fell out; Pottery broke
without apparent cause, And the birds turned white. After a few
hours all foodstuffs were infected......To escape from this fire.
The soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and
their equipment...
One is reminded of the yet unknown final effect of a super-bomb when
we read in the Ramayana of a projectile:
...So powerful
that it could destroy
The earth in an instant -
A great soaring sound in smoke and flames...
And on it sits Death...
(source: Doomsday 1999 - By Charles Berlitz p. 118-122).
The Discovery of
Dwaraka
Discovered in 1981, the
well-fortified township of Dwaraka extended more than
half a mile from the shore and was built in six sectors along the
banks of a river before it became submerged.
The findings are of
immense cultural and religious importance to India. Among the
objects unearthed that proved Dwarka's connection with the
Mahabharata epic was a sea engraved with the image of a
three-headed animal. The epic mentions such a seal given to the
citizens of Dwarka as a proof of identity when the city was
threatened by King Jarasandha of the powerful Magadh kingdom
(now Bihar).
The foundation of boulders
on which the city's walls were erected proves that the land was
reclaimed from the sea about 3,600 years ago. The epic has
references to such reclamation activity at Dwarka. Seven islands
mentioned in it were also discovered submerged in the Arabian Sea.
Why is that the rediscovery of Dwaraka has not attracted the same
degree of attention in the West, as that of ancient Troy by
Heinrich
Schliemann?
|