What is a vimana?
Vimanas are flying palaces and vehicles that appear in the myths and epics of ancient India. Especially famous is the “Pushpaka Vimana” of the Ramayana, a flying chariot that the demon king Ravana stole from Kubera, god of wealth, and that the hero Rama later uses to return home.
The “ancient aircraft” theory
In the 20th century, a theory arose that vimanas were not mythological vehicles but aircraft that really existed in ancient India. It was linked with the ancient astronaut theory and the ancient nuclear war theory, and a text called the Vaimanika Shastra, said to describe the structure and flight of vimanas in detail, has been presented as evidence.
Did vimanas really exist?
The Vaimanika Shastra is a text said to have been taken down through psychic inspiration in the early 20th century; it is not an ancient text. In 1974, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science examined its contents and concluded that the craft it describes could not fly and that it is a fabrication by someone who did not understand the principles of aviation. Vimanas are thought to be mythological vehicles born from the rich imagination of ancient people.
