vimana

{{Wiktionary}}

File:West Pediment, Phnom Rung 0434.jpg

The Sanskrit word vimāna (विमान) literally means "measuring out, traversing" or "having been measured out". Monier Monier-Williams defines vimāna as "a car or a chariot of the gods, any self-moving aerial car sometimes serving as a seat or throne, sometimes self-moving and carrying its occupant through the air; other descriptions make the Vimana more like a house or palace, and one kind is said to be seven stories high", and quotes the Pushpaka Vimana of Ravana as an example. It may denote any car or vehicle, especially a bier or a ship as well as a palace of an emperor, especially with seven stories.[http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0980-vimalaya.jpg Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary] Nowadays, vimāna, vimān or bimān means "aircraft" in Indian languages, for example, the Bangladesh Biman (national flag carrier of Bangladesh) and in the town names Vimanapura (a suburb of Bangalore) and Vimannagar (a town in Pune). In another context, Vimana is a feature in Hindu temple architecture.

File:Ravana seizes the chariot Puspaka from Kuvera.jpg

File:Rama welcomed.jpg

In the Ramayana, the pushpaka ("flowery") vimana of Ravana is described as follows:

The Pushpaka Vimana that resembles the Sun and belongs to my brother was brought by the powerful Ravana; that aerial and excellent Vimana going everywhere at will ... that chariot resembling a bright cloud in the sky ... and the King [Rama] got in, and the excellent chariot at the command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere.Dutt, Manatha Nath (translator), Ramayana, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1892, and New York, 1910.

It is the first flying vimana mentioned in existing Hindu texts (as distinct from the gods' flying horse-drawn chariots). Pushpaka was originally made by Vishvakarma for Brahma, the Hindu god of creation; later Brahma gave it to Kubera, the God of wealth; but it was later stolen, along with Lanka, by his half-brother, king Ravana.

A title of Uparichara was received by a king named Vasu after a Vimana (flying chariot) was granted to him by Indra, who was pleased with him. This chariot enabled him to wander (chara) above (upari) all mortals. The Vimana appeared as a crystalline entity in the sky.{{Cite book |last=Bhaṭṭācārya |first=Tārānātha TarkaVācaspati |url=https://archive.org/details/VfAW_vachaspatyam-vol-2-compiled-by-taranath-vachaaspati-bhattacharya-chowkhamba-seri |title=वाचस्पत्यम् (बृहत् संस्कृताभिधानम्) |publisher=Caukhambā |year=1873 |series=The Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Work No. 94 |volume=2 |location=Varanasi |page=331 |at= |language=sa |trans-title=Vācaspatyam: A Comprehensive Sanskrit Lexicon. |chapter=उपरिचर |trans-chapter=Uparichara |quote=तुष्टेन शक्रेण तस्मै आकाशगं विमानं दत्तं तत्र चरणादुपरिचरनामेत्युक्तं |orig-year=1962 |chapter-url=https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/VCPScan/VCPScanpdf/pg1319.pdf |chapter-format=PDF |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last=Dvaipāyana |first=(Vyāsa) Kṛṣṇa |author-link=Vyasa |title=महाभारतम्-01-आदिपर्व-064 |trans-title=Mahabharata - Volume 1 - Adi Parva - 064 |url=https://sa.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D-01-%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5-064&oldid=54241 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=विकिस्रोतः |language=sa |quote=दैवोपभोग्यं दिव्यं त्वामाकाशे स्फाटिकं महत्। आकाशगं त्वां मद्दत्तं विमानमुपपत्स्यते॥ त्वमेकः सर्वमर्त्येषु विमानवरमास्थितः। चरिष्यस्युपरिस्थो हि देवो विग्रहवानिव॥ |trans-quote=The celestial chariot, enjoyable to the deities and beautifully crystalline in the sky, that I have graciously bestowed upon you will come to you. You alone, on the splendid chariot, residing above all mortals, will wander above, like the embodiment of the divine.}}

{{Verse translation|दैवोपभोग्यं दिव्यं त्वामाकाशे स्फाटिकं महत्। आकाशगं त्वां मद्दत्तं विमानमुपपत्स्यते॥१३॥

त्वमेकः सर्वमर्त्येषु विमानवरमास्थितः। चरिष्यस्युपरिस्थो हि देवो विग्रहवानिव॥१४॥|The celestial chariot, enjoyable to the deities and beautifully crystalline in the sky, that I have graciously bestowed upon you will come to you.(13)

You alone, on the splendid chariot, residing above all mortals, will wander above, like the embodiment of the divine.(14)|head1=महाभारतम् आदिपर्व ६४|head2=Mahabharata - Volume 1 - Adi Parva - 064|lang1=sa|attr1=Mahabharata|lang2=en|italicsoff2=y}}

Vimāna-vāsin ('dweller in vimāna') is a class of deities who served the {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara Mahā-vīra}}.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8si5ZrsP90UC&q=Jaina+vimana+vehicle&pg=PA169|author=Hermann Jacobi|title=Jaina Sūtras|page=169|isbn=9781605067278|year=2008|publisher=Forgotten Books }} These Vaimānika deities dwell in the Ūrdhva Loka heavens. According to the Kalpa Sūtra of Bhadra-bāhu, the 24th {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara Mahā-vīra}} himself emerged from the great {{IAST|vimāna Puṣpa-uttara}};[http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm (2)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208115935/http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm |date=December 8, 2008 }} whereas the 22nd {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara Ariṣṭa-nemi}} emerged from the great vimāna Aparijita.[http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm (171)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208115935/http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm |date=December 8, 2008 }} The {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara-s Abhinandana}} (4th) and Sumati-nātha (5th) bothJohann Georg Buhler (ed. by James Burgess) : The Indian Sect of the Jainas. London : Luzac, 1903. p. 67 traveled through the sky in the "Jayanta-vimāna", namely the great vimāna Sarva-artha-siddhi, which was owned byJohann Georg Buhler (ed. by James Burgess) : The Indian Sect of the Jainas. London : Luzac, 1903. p. 74 the Jayanta deities; whereas the {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara Dharma-nātha}} (15th) traveled through the sky in the "Vijaya-vimāna".Johann Georg Buhler (ed. by James Burgess) : The Indian Sect of the Jainas. London : Luzac, 1903. p. 69 A vimāna may be seen in a dream, such as the nalinī-gulma.Saryu Doshi (transl. by Thomas Dix) : Dharma Vihara, Ranakpur. Axel Menges, 1995. p. 11a.[http://www.eternalmewar.in/User/Research/WikiDescription.aspx?Id=RANAKPUR,%20FOUNDING%20OF Mewar Encyclopedia, s.v. "Ranakpur, founding of"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721155726/http://www.eternalmewar.in/User/Research/WikiDescription.aspx?Id=RANAKPUR,%20FOUNDING%20OF |date=July 21, 2011 }}

Ashoka mentions a model vimana ("aerial chariot") as part of the festivities or procession which were organised during his reign.{{Cite book|last=Eugen Hultzsch|url=http://archive.org/details/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch|title=Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch|date=1925|pages=30–31|language=sa}}

{{Quotation|text=In times past, for many hundreds of years, there had ever been promoted the killing of animals and the hurting of living beings, discourtesy to relatives, (and) discourtesy to Sramanas and Brahmanas.

But now, in consequence of the practice of morality on the part of king Devanampriya Priyadarsin, the sound of drums has become the sound of morality, showing the people representations of aerial chariots, elephants, masses of fire, and other divine figures.|author=Ashoka|title=|source=Major rock Edict no IV}}

Chapter 31 of Samarangana Sutradhara, an 11th-century treatise on architecture, discusses machinery and automata, discussing their operation in terms of the four elements and aether, but suggesting that mercury may be an element in its own right.{{cite journal |last1=Salvini |first1=Mattia |title=The Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |date=January 2012 |volume=22 |issue=1 |doi=10.1017/S135618631100085X |url=https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/1344377/The-Samaranganasutradhara-by-Mattia-Salvina,-Mahidol-University.pdf |access-date=25 October 2023}} The author says he has personally seen most of the devices he describes in use, but does not specify which ones. The list includes two wooden aircraft, referred to as "vimanas": a "light" one shaped like a huge bird and a "heavy" one shaped like a temple.{{cite book |last1=King Bhojadeva of Dhar (attrib.) |editor1-last=Sastri |editor1-first=T. Ganapati|title=Samarangana Sutradhara |date=1927 |publisher=Baroda Central Library |location=Baroda |page=introduction |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.345259/page/n5/mode/2up |access-date=25 October 2023}} Both types contain a fire chamber which heats a container of mercury, somehow causing the aircraft to rise from the ground. However, the description is purposely left incomplete for ethical reasons:

{{Poem quote|The construction of the machines has not been explained

For the sake of secrecy, and not due to lack of knowledge.

In that respect, that should be known as the reason—

They are not fruitful when disclosed}}

{{Main|Vaimānika Shāstra}}

File:Vaimanika Shastra Shakuna illustration.jpg

The Vaimānika Shāstra is an early 20th-century Sanskrit text on aeronautics, obtained allegedly by mental channeling, about the construction of vimānas, the "chariots of the Gods". The existence of the text was revealed in 1952 by G. R. Josyer, according to whom it was written by one Pandit Subbaraya Shastry, who dictated it in 1918–1923. A Hindi translation was published in 1959, the Sanskrit text with an English translation in 1973. It has 3000 shlokas in eight chapters. Subbaraya Shastry allegedly stated that the content was dictated to him by Maharishi Bharadvaja.Childress (1991), p. 109 A study by aeronautical and mechanical engineering at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1974 concluded that the aircraft described in the text were "poor concoctions" and that the author showed a complete lack of understanding of aeronautics.{{cite news|url=http://www.hvk.org/articles/0601/100.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331170834/http://www.hvk.org/articles/0601/100.html|archive-date=2012-03-31|title=Flights of fancy? (Part X of XII)|date=2001-06-24|publisher=The Week|access-date=2009-06-29}}

{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2017}}

Pushpak Vimana, meaning "an aeroplane with flowers", is a mythical aeroplane found in Ayyavazhi mythology. Akilattirattu Ammanai, the religious book of Ayyavazhi, says that the Pushpak Vimana was sent to carry Ayya Vaikundar to Vaikundam.

A similar reference is found in regards of Saint Tukaram, Maharashtra, India. Lord Vishnu was so impressed by the devotion and singing of Saint Tukaram that when his time came, a Pushpak Viman (a heavenly aircraft shaped as an eagle) came to take him to heaven. Though it is believed that every other human being can go to Heaven without body, Saint Tukaram went to heaven with body (Sadeha Swarga Prapti).

Vimanas have appeared in books, films, games, on the Internet, etc., including:

• Biman is the name of national airline of Bangladesh, its name derived from Sanskrit Vimāna.
• Vimana is an arcade game from Toaplan wherein the player's ship earns the name.

{{Div col|colwidth=12em}}

• Early flying machines
• Laputa
• Merkabah mysticism
• Quimbaya artifacts
• Ratha
• Vaimanika Shastra
• Vimanavatthu

{{Div col end}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• [http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_7.htm#Ancient%20Indian The Anti-Gravity Handbook (Lost Science)] by David Hatcher Childress at WorldMysteries.com
• [http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vimanas/vimanas.htm#menu Vymanika Shastra]
• [http://www.stephen-knapp.com/ufos_and_vimanas.htm UFOs and Vimanas]
• [http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_vimanas.htm#inicio Los Vimanas]—A collection of various texts, partially in Spanish and partially in English
• [http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/vimana-aircraft-of-india-more-sloppy-scholarship-from-david-childress "Vimana Aircraft of India: More Sloppy Scholarship from David Childress"] by Jason Colavito

{{HinduMythology}}

Category:Flying chariots

Category:Objects in Hindu mythology