What happened
The Pushpaka ('flowery') vimana is the most famous flying vehicle in Sanskrit literature. In Valmiki's Ramayana it was built by the divine architect Vishvakarma for Brahma, passed to Kubera, the god of wealth, and was seized by the demon-king Ravana, who uses it to carry off Sita. After Ravana's defeat, Ravana's brother Vibhishana lends the decorated aerial car to Rama for the journey home. In the Yuddha Kanda Rama boards with Sita and Lakshmana, then invites Vibhishana and the whole monkey army aboard. The car rises into the sky at Rama's command, and on the way Rama points out to Sita the places where the war was fought. The text describes it as shining like the sun and resembling a bright cloud. Elsewhere the epic yokes Ravana's car to animals, and the Sanskrit of the homeward flight calls it swan-yoked. Today 'vimana' is the ordinary word for aircraft in several Indian languages.
The official explanation
Sanskritists treat the Pushpaka as a mythological divine chariot, one of many self-moving vehicles and flying palaces of the gods in Hindu and Jain literature. The Monier-Williams dictionary defines vimana as a car or throne of the gods, sometimes a seven-storeyed palace. The epic's own details are mythic rather than mechanical: the car is drawn by swans or 'ghost-faced' mules, can hold an entire army, and flies at the will of its owner. Scholars date the core of the Ramayana to roughly 750-500 BC, with later additions.
The anomalous case
Proponents argue that the Ramayana keeps returning to a vehicle that behaves like an aircraft rather than a winged chariot. It is built by a named engineer-god, can be captured and passed between owners as property, rises on command, carries a large load, and gives its passengers an aerial tour of the landscape below, which Rama narrates place by place. The epic's description of it as sun-bright and cloud-like has been compared to modern descriptions of luminous craft. Ancient-astronaut authors from Erich von Daniken onward have used vimanas as evidence of lost or non-human flight technology. In 2015 a paper presented at the 102nd Indian Science Congress claimed that Vedic-era aircraft could fly forwards, backwards and sideways, and travel to other planets. More than 200 scientists signed a petition calling that claim pseudoscience.
The strongest argument that this was something genuinely unknown or classified, with each claim attributed to the person who made it.
How it has been read
A divine, wish-driven chariot of the gods, comparable to Greek and Near Eastern sky chariots. It belongs to myth, and the epic itself pictures it drawn by swans or mules rather than flying by machinery.
A memory of real flying machines from a lost advanced civilisation or from visitors. Writers point to the Pushpaka's carrying capacity, its controlled ascent and its aerial sightseeing route.
Documents
- Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda sarga 122 (Sanskrit with English) scripture, valmikiramayan.net
Sources
- Vimana Wikipedia
- Valmiki Ramayana: Yuddha Kanda, Sarga 122 valmikiramayan.net
- Ramayana Wikipedia
- 2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy Wikipedia
Witness reports elsewhere
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