A flight over Chowpatty that made history

Pradeep Vijayakar, TNN | Oct 18, 2004, 07.05PM IST

Page 1 of 2

MUMBAI: As the roar of the engines of the Air Force jets died down when the air show
ended on Sunday, there were a few whose thoughts went back to the first flight of a plane at
the very Chowpatty beach over which the air show was held.
In 1895 an Indian pioneer flew what is said to be the first Indian plane in the air. The
centenary year of the first successful flight, by the Wright brothers, was celebrated from
December 17, 2003. But our own pioneer from Mumbai, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, made an
aircraft and had flown it eight years earlier. One of Talpade's students, P Satwelkar, has
chronicled that his craft called 'Marutsakha'(Friend of the Winds) flew unmanned for a few
minutes and came down.
Talpade belonged to the Pathare Prabhu community, one of the founder of Mumbai.
According to aviation historians Mr Talpade used his knowledge of the Rig Vedas to build a
plane. Orville and Wilbert Wright accomplished their feat in California on December
17,1903. Their flight lasted for 37 seconds.
The Wright brothers based the design of their aircraft by studying bird movements. Mr
Talpade used the principle of solar energy combined with mercury to design his plane.
Pratap Velkar, in his book on the Pathare Prabhu community, says that Mr Talpade also
studied the achievements of aviation pioneers like Alva Edison who flew in a balloon and
survived a mishap in 1880. Mr Talpade's study included the experiment of machine gun
inventor Hiram Maxim who propelled his steam plane down a slope. It did not take off for
technical reasons.
In 1896 Samuel Langley's steam balloon flew at a height of 100 feet and a three quarters of a
mile. Then came the famous Zeppelin 1900 which successfully flew at a height of 1100 feet
after three attempts in Germany.
The first breakthrough in flying was made by a Brazlian, Santos D'Monte. He made 14
planes between 1901 and 1904 in his country. And he flew them himself. Many believe that
Santos was the first successful flier and not the Wright Brothers.
According to Mr Velkar, Mr Talpade studied these flights which inspired him to make an
aircraft and fly. Mr Talpade was staying at what is today Nagindas Shah Marg in Girgaum in
the bustling heart of Mumbai. The frame of the historic plane was gathering dust at his
house after his death. One of his nieces, Roshan Talpade, has been quoted by Mr Velkar's
book saying the family used to sit in the aircraft's frame and imagine they were flying. At a

recent exhibition on flying at Vile Parle, a model of 'Marutsakha' was exhibited.

Mr Velkar regrets that Mr Talpade's plane has not found a place in the aviation museum at
Nehru Centre, nor is there a memorial to his feat at Chowpatty.
However some documents relating to his experiment have been preserved at the Hindustan
Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore.
At an aeronautical conference in Chennai Talpade's flight was discussed by foreign
delegates. D H Bedekar, one-time principal defence scientific officer, has said Mr Talpade's
plane for some technical reasons failed to operate to its full design limits.
Talpade wanted to unravel the mystery with further experiments. He even made an appeal
for funds some Rs 50,000 at a public meeting in Ahmedabad he had addressed. But to no
avail. As his biographer,Professor Kelkar, wrote: "His efforts crashed like a bird whose
wings are slashed."
In contrast the US army donated 25,000 dollars to the Wright brothers to pursue their feat.
In turn the brothers' invention redefined how the US fought its wars.
Alas, as planes zoomed over Chowpatty on Sunday nothing was recounted about an Indian
visionary whose flight of fancy remains in the throes of anonymity.

Ancient Indian science theories

based on logic: Prakash Javadekar
Sunday, 4 January 2015 - 6:00pm IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: PTI

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar

"If Germans and others can, on the basis of our language (Sanskrit) and our ancient science, produce new
equipment, what can't we?" the Minister said

"Ancient Indian scientific theories were based on minute understanding of observations

of centuries and based on experience and logic," Union MinisterPrakash
Javadekar has said.
"The theories, without much tools and machines, were based on minute understanding
of observations of centuries and based on experience and logic. That wisdom must be
recognised. That wisdom has a relevance today," Javadekar said. He was speaking at a
symposium on 'Ancient Indian sciences through Sanskrit' on the second day of
the102nd Indian Science Congress in suburban Kalina. "If Germans and others can, on
the basis of our language (Sanskrit) and our ancient science, produce new equipment,
what can't we?" the Minister said.
"The issue of today's symposium, Ancient Indian sciences through Sanskrit, is a good
topic to be discussed because knowledge is supreme. The objective of the symposium
is very secular and purely academic," he said. "Those who want to pursue the path of
knowledge don't see how old it is. Everything old may not be gold, but not everything old
is a waste," Javadekar said. "We must be very clear as to what science means. I can't
deliver speech in Sanskrit, but I begin my day by listening to the 6.55 AM

Sanskrit news. Once you know Sanskrit, it it easy to pick up other languages.," the
Minister said.
"The scientific community gathered here should pay attention to the Sanskrit knowledge
fund and use it for human development. Germans have done it. Sometimes I feel that
they have done it more religiously, more sincerely, extensively, globally. They were
perhaps the first to recognise Sanskrit as the language of linguistic expression of
science and culture in ancient India," Javadekar said.
"This is one thing that modern Germany acknowledges and what it has learned from
India, that India has not acknowledged well enough. Gandhiji said nature can take care
of our need but not our greed and the climate change has been due to this
greed. Where do science and Sanskrit converge? Science is rebellion and is against
superstition. It challenges the status quo. We lack in innovation because our education
system from primary level doesn't allow curiosity to take place, to question the
fundamentals.", he said.
"I am trying to change the image of my department, which was negative, to positive. I
am holding 'Chintan Shivir' at three places in India," the Union Environment
Minister said.
"Despite opposition from some officers, I have decided to have brainstorming sessions
with officers over 35 and 45 years age and who have around 20 years tenure left. I will
get ideas from the young people. Knowledge is a progressive process. All issues must
be debated and taken forward. Whatever is good will survive. Whatever is not relevant
will perish, he added.
"What India requires is innovation. A culture of innovation is badly needed today",
Javadekar said.
Javadekar said, "We should draw upon the knowledge of ancient Indian science
concepts and explore possibilities of their application in the modern world. The scientific

community gathered at the congress should pay attention to the source material
available in Sanskrit and use it for the betterment of humanity." The Minister wondered
when Germany could make use of ancient Indian concepts and adapt them to produce
cutting edge inventions, what prevents India from doing so.
On India lacking in innovation and research, Javadekar said, "Our education system
from primary level itself does not promote questioning the fundamentals. This system of
rote learning hinders reasoning and inquisitiveness. There is an urgent need to promote
meritocracy, especially in the field of science education to prepare quality scientists,
who in turn can contribute to the nation's development and welfare. An ability of a
scientist should be measured by his or her ability to innovate, rather than the length of
his or her service", he said.
Indian Science Congress president Prof S. M. Nimse, Mumbai University's Vice
Chancellor Dr. Rajan Welukar and Dr. Uma Vaidya, Vice Chancellor of Kavikulguru
Kalidas Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Ramtek, were among those present.
MUMBAI: The second day of the Indian Science Congress hosted at the University of Mumbai on
Sunday saw a lecture examining ancient aviation technology in the Vedas.
A pamphlet about Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, who Captain Anand J Bodas, the controversial retired
principal of a pilot training institute, described as the first man to build and fly an aircraft in the
modern era, was distributed to the audience. It says Talpade could not expand his work on the Vedic
Vimana as he did not receive support from the British government.
Other speakers were of the view that the ancient science theory needs to be tested with modern
technology. Sanskrit texts have tremendous potential that needs to be explored and researched
further. Scientists and Sanskritists must work together to innovate, said Gauri Mahulikar, head of
the department of Sanskrit, University of Mumbai.
Describing Indias contribution to medical science, Dr Ashwin Sawant said the Susrut Samhita is the
first text of surgery created not later than 1,500 BC in India. India had realised the importance of
anatomy for accurate surgery, long before the Greeks and were dissecting the human body to gain
anatomical knowledge, at least, a millennium before Hippocrates, said Sawant. The event ended
with a brief meditation session by Brahma Kumaris and chanting of Vande Mataram.

Aeroplanes existed in India 7,000 years ago and they travelled from not just one country
to another but also to other planets, or so claimed Captain Anand J Bodas in a
controversial session at the Indian Science Congress. The retired principal of a pilot
training facility attracted criticism from some scientists who said such claims
undermined the primacy of empirical evidence on which the 102-year-old Congress was
founded. The lecture was presented on the second day of the Congress under the aegis of
Mumbai University as part of a session titled 'Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit'.
Drawing upon the ancient Vedic texts to support the claim that there was flying
technology in ancient India, Bodas said, "There is a reference of ancient aviation in the
Rigveda."
He said Maharishi Bharadwaj spoke 7,000 years ago of "the existence of aeroplanes
which travel from one country to another, from one continent to another and from one
planet to another. He mentioned 97 reference books for aviation." "History merely notes
that the Wright brothers first flew in 1904," he said.
Bharadwaj, who authored the book Vimana Samhita, has written about various types of
metal alloys used to build an aeroplane, Bodas said, adding, "Now we have to import
aeroplane alloys. The young generation should study the alloys mentioned in his book
and make them here,"
He also spoke of the "huge" aeroplanes which flew in ancient India. "The basic structure
was of 60 by 60 feet and in some cases, over 200 feet. They were jumbo planes," he said.
"The ancient planes had 40 small engines. Today's aviation does not know even of
flexible exhaust system," he said.
The ancient Indian radar system was called 'rooparkanrahasya'. "In this system, the
shape of the aeroplane was presented to the observer, instead of the mere blip that is
seen on modern radar systems," he said. Bharadwaj's book mentioned a diet of pilots. It
contained of milk of buffalo, cow and sheep for specific periods, Bodas said. The pilot's
clothes came from vegetation grown underwater, he said.
Bodas' wasn't the only controversial paper presented at the session. As this Times of
India report points out, another paper pointed out that "Indians had developed 20 types
of sharp instruments and 101 blunt ones for surgeries, which largely resemble the

modern surgical instruments," while another spoke of how "ancient Indian engineers
had adequate knowledge of Indian botany and they effectively used it in their
construction."
The session had courted controversy even ahead of the conference, when Dr Ram Prasad
Gandhiraman, a scientist with the Nasa's Ames Research Centre in California, filed an
online petition demanding that the session be cancelled because it fused science with
mythology.

PM meeting with members of the ISCA ahead of the conference. PTI

The petition said:

"We as scientific community should be seriously concerned about the infiltration of
pseudo-science in science curricula with backing of influential political parties. Giving a
scientific platform for a pseudo-science talk is worse than a systematic attack that has
been carried out by politically powerful pseudo-science propagandists in the recent past.
If we scientists remain passive, we are betraying not only the science, but also our
children."
While there was only one such session, its significance was heightened by remarks from
ministers in the Modi government at the conference. For instance, Dr Harsh Vardhan,
the Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan, told the Congress, "Our
scientists discovered the Pythagoras theorem, but we ... gave credit to the Greeks. We all

know that we knew beejganit much before the Arabs, but very selflessly we allowed it to
be called Algebra. This is the base the Indian scientific community has maintained."
Whether it is related to the solar system, medicine, chemistry or earth science, we have
shared all our knowledge very selflessly, he had added.
In addition to Harsh Vardhan, Union minister Prakash Javadekar, who was chief guest
at the event, also commented that "the scientific community gathered at the Congress
should pay attention to the source material available in Sanskrit and use it for
betterment of humanity," reports Times of India.
While the claims regarding the value of Sanskrit or the origin of the theorem are not
fantastical per se, members from the scientific community were unhappy .
An Indian scientist from the US who attended the session told TOI, "Knowledge always
grows, its flow never stops. So if all this knowledge was available in the ancient days, I
need to know where it stopped. Why did it fail to grow? Why was there no
advancement? When did it stop?..."
On Harsh Vardhan's remarks, one maths professor at Mumbai University was quoted
by TOI as saying, "We know Indians have contributed to mathematics to a great extent.
However, I was surprised to hear what he said. Maybe the way he thinks about
mathematics is different than what we academicians do."
Interestingly PM Modi will inaugurating the event did not speak about ancient science
(unlike the Ganesha and plastic surgery remark at the AIIMS conference in October last
year) and instead stressed the need for "efforts to ensure that science, technology and
innovation reach the poorest, the remotest and the most vulnerable person."
He also said that, "We must restore the pride and prestige of science and scientists in
our nation."
For all the hullabaloo over the ancient India session, it should be noted that the most
sessions at the Indian Science Congress Association's (ISCA) annual event were
dedicated to more 'current' topics like Mars Missions, Mathematics and computation,
Nutrition and Health, Biotechnology, etc. You can view the full schedule here. But
as this Hindustan Times report, points out that this is the first time in the 100 year
history of this event that such a session has been held -- and the publicity it has

garnered has sadly overshadowed the good work of the Indian scientific community and
the ISCA, which has a membership strength of more than 30,000 scientists.

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Move over Wright Brothers, ancient India had

aircraft
By FPJ Bureau | Jan 05, 2015 02:30 am

Mumbai: The Science Congress in Mumbai is fast turning into a treatise on ancient Indias
scientific prowess. The latest to trespass into the Vedic period was a guest speaker at the
Congress, a self-proclaimed aviation expert named Captain Anand Bodas. He delved into the
Rigvedic period to assert that airplanes existed in India 7,000 years ago that could fly from one
country to another and also from one planet to another. These flying machines could halt mid air

and move in any direction thereafter. That would put them on an even keel with modern-day
MIG aircraft which can fuel mid-air.
The fountainhead of this Indian theory of aerodynamics was Maharishi Bharadwaj who authored
the book Vimana Samhita, wherein he even mentioned the metal alloys that could be used to
build an aircraft. Bodas contention is that there would be no need to import these expensive
alloys if we study Bharadjwajs exposition.
The lecture was presented on the second day of the Congress under the aegis of Mumbai
University as part of a symposium on Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit. This symposium is
the first of its kind in 102 years of the Science Congress. The other speakers discussed ancient
Indian botany, neuroscience of yoga and ancient Indian surgery.
The hosting of this lecture recently attracted much flak from some scientists who said it
undermines the empirical evidence on which the Science Congress is founded. Incidentally, an
online petition by a scientist at the NASA research centre, signed by over 200 other scientists,
had demanded that the scheduled lecture be cancelled as it mixes mythology with science and
misleads people.
Bodas also boasted of huge airplanes in ancient India The basic structure was of 60 by 60
feet and, in some cases, over 200 feet. They were jumbo planes. Todays aviation does not
know even of flexible exhaust system, he said. The ancient Indian radar system was called
Rooparkanrahasya, he added.
Kalidas Sanskrit University, Ramtek, and the Sanskrit Department at Mumbai University
convened the session. Dr. Gauri Mahulikar, Head of the department of Sanskrit, said during her
inaugural remarks that many saw Sanskrit as a language of religion and philosophy, but it was
also a language of science.
There are references to dissection and autopsy in ancient Sanskrit texts. Sushruta says if a
corpse floats for three days in a river it will swell and all muscles and nerves can then be seen,
she said.
Dr. Ashwin Sawant, a general practitioner in Mumbai, said that surgery in ancient India was very
advanced and Sushruta, the father of surgery, described qualities of a good surgeon in his book
Sushruta Samhita.
Sushruta was the first medical person to use leeches in medical treatment. In the last two
decades, the FDA of United States has accepted leeches as a medical device, he said. A drilled
tooth dating back 7000 years was found at a place now in Pakistan, he added.

Sushruta was the first to say that the human heart is the centre of the bodys circulation system.
However, we give credit to William Harvey for the discovery of circulation of blood, he said.
Sushruta also explained 20 types of surgical procedures to be performed.
Dr Rahul Altekar spoke of scientific principles in ancient Indian architecture and civil
engineering while Dr Leena Phadke spoke about the neuroscience of yoga.
The session also hosted an exhibition where wooden replicas of 20 types of sharp and 101 blunt
surgical instruments used by Sushruta were on display along with several ancient books and the
geometrical instruments described by ancient mathematicians. The exhibition also displayed a
software program that can be used to learn ancient texts. The program is currently being
processed for a patent, Pune-based researcher Mrs. Deshpande, who has developed this software,
told the FPJ.
Javadekar lauds symposium
The objective of the symposium was very secular and purely academic, said Union environment
minister Prakash Javadekar, who inaugurated the session. He said that ancient Indian scientific
theories were based on minute understanding of observations over centuries, experience and
logic. If Germans and others can use the language (Sanskrit) to understand our ancient science
and produce new equipment, why cant we? he said. Knowledge is a progressive process and all
issues must be debated and taken forward. Whatever is good will survive. Whatever is not
relevant will perish. What India requires is innovation. A culture of innovation is badly needed

NDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS ORGANISERS SLIP VEDIC

MYTHOLOGY ABOUT AVIATION INTO PROGRAMME SCHEDULE
By Vikrant Dadawala, Mumbai Mirror | Dec 26, 2014, 12.00 AM IST

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(L-R) Local sec Dr Rajpal Hande, ISC general president Sarjerao Nimse and MU VC Dr Rajan M Welukar interacting with the press
about the 102nd Indian Science Congress

One of the speakers on age-old aeroplanes claims the aircraft could fly backwards, travel to other
planets.
Straddling a lecture on ribosomes, resistance to antibiotics and the origin of life and a discourse
about controlling the cell cycle, both delivered by Nobel laureates, is a talk that's at odds with the
programming at the five-day Indian Science Congress, scheduled to begin at Mumbai University's
Kalina Campus on January 3.
The lecture in question, included in a symposium that examines the role of "ancient sciences through
Sanskrit", which will take place on January 4, is in keeping with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) government's untested claims that Heisenberg's uncertainty principle takes root in the Vedas
and India conducted the world's first nuclear test "lakhs of years ago".
It is arguably inconsistent with the tradition of scientific method, testable methods and primacy of
empirical evidence on which the 102-year-old congress was founded.
The talk that is symbolic of this anomaly deals with "ancient Indian aviation technology", which will
be delivered by a retired principal of a pilot training facility in Kerala and a lecturer at the Swami
Vivekananda International School and Junior College in Mumbai.
The first of the two speakers, Captain Anand J Bodas, told Mumbai Mirror that he believes "modern
science is unscientific" in that it claims things it cannot understand do not exist. "The Vedic or rather
ancient Indian definition of an aeroplane was a vehicle which travels through the air from one
country to another country, from one continent to another continent, from one planet to another
planet," he said. "In those days aeroplanes were huge in size, and could move left, right, as well as
backwards, unlike modern planes which only fly forward."
Captain Bodas's source text for these claims is what he terms is an ancient Indian treatise on
aviation, Vaimanika Prakaranam, the authorship of which is attributed to the sage Bhardwaj. "Out of
the 500 guidelines described in it, only 100 to 120 survive today," he said of the manuscript. "This is
due to the passage of time, foreign rulers ruling us, and things being stolen from the country."
Prof Gauri Mahulikar, head of MU's Sanskrit Department and coordinator for the session, said that

this was the first time that the Indian Science Congress had held a symposium on ancient Indian
science viewed through Sanskrit literature. "If we had chosen Sanskrit professors to talk about the
references to aviation technology in Sanskrit literature, which includes information on how to make
planes, the dress code and diet of pilots, the seven types of fuel used, people would have dismissed
us, but Captain Bodas is himself a pilot, and his co-presenter, Ameya Jadhav, holds an MTech degree
besides an MA in Sanskrit," she said.
Union environment minister Prakash Jawadekar will deliver the inaugural address at the session,
which will also dwell on engineering applications of ancient Indian botany, advances in surgery in
ancient India and the neuroscience of yoga.
Mumbai University, which will host the event after a gap of 54 years, has included in its roster of
speakers six Nobel laureates and four recipients of equally prestigious scientific prizes like the Fields
Medal.
The scepticism that animates the work of such scientists was in evidence when Mumbai Mirror asked
one of the country's foremost experts on aviation, former Director of National Aerospace
Laboratories (NAL) and recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, Prof Roddam Narasimha, to discuss
Captain Bodas's source text. "There is no credible account of aviation in ancient India," he said.
"[And] there is no authentic account of achievement in the field of aviation in ancient India. The
book Vaimanika Prakaranam or Vimanika Shastra has been studied in great detail and the accepted
view in the scientific community is that the descriptions given in it are not scientifically correct."
According to a study by five professors - H S Mukunda, S M Deshpande, H RNagendra, A Prabhu,
and S P Govindaraju - of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, published in the journal
Scientific Opinion, the Vimanika Shastra was not an ancient text as claimed by its votaries, but
"cannot be dated earlier than 1904" and that the planes described in it are "poor concoctions" and
"unimaginably horrendous from the point of view of flying".
The decision to include the lecture in the schedule does have its supporters; Dr S D Sharma, Prof of
Aerospace Engineering at IIT-B, being one among them. "I would not dismiss the topic out of hand,"
he said. "A purely mythological lecture comparing aeroplanes in Sanskrit texts to contemporary ones
could be very interesting. However, there should not be any kind of story telling that is not backed by
evidence."

Indians invented planes

7,000 years ago and other

startling claims at the

Science Congress
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By Rama Lakshmi January 4

NEW DELHI The Wright Brothers thought they were inventing the
airplane, but an ancient Hindu sage beat them to it, about 7,000 years ago.
Oh, and his planes could move in any direction, and travel from planet to
planet.
Proof? The ancient Vedas texts that are old, but not 7,000 years old
mention them, Capt. Anand J. Bodas, the retired principal of a pilot training
facility, told the Indian Science Congress on Sunday in Mumbai.
There is official history and unofficial history. Official history only noted that
the Wright Brothers flew the first plane in 1903," Bodas said in his 30-minute
speech. He said the worlds first plane was invented by the Hindu sage
Maharishi Bharadwaj. "The ancient planes had 40 small engines." Also, he
said, a flexible exhaust system that modern aviation can't even approach.
His audience, in Mumbai and across the country, was left wondering whether
this was a genuine if implausible scientific claim, or an effort at fostering
national pride or just part of an ongoing campaign to boost the agenda of the
country's new Hindu nationalist rulers.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was present at the session,

said ancient Indian science was based on experience and logic and that
wisdom must be recognized.
Indias science and technology minister, Harsh Vardhan, made another
startling claim at the conference, saying that ancient Indian mathematicians
also discovered the Pythagorean theorem but that the Greeks got the credit.
The conference has been the subject of controversy all week. More than 200
scientists signed an online petition opposing Sunday's scheduled lecture,
called 'Ancient Indian Aviation Technology," saying it amounted to giving a
scientific platform for a pseudo-science talk.
"If we scientists remain passive, we are betraying not only the science, but also
our children," the petition said.
On Twitter, the hashtag #Vedic trended Sunday, but many joked about the
claims. too.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the conference on Saturday and
urged the nations scientists to explore the mysteries of science. But Modi
also has made similar claims earlier. In October, he mixed mythology with
science when he said that the elephant-trunked, pot-bellied Hindu
godGanesha got his head because of the presence of plastic surgeons in
ancient India.

Rama Lakshmi has been with The Post's India bureau since 1990. She is a staff writer
and India social media editor for Post World.
Flying high
Hundred years after Orville Wrights first flight, K R N SWAMY remembers Shivkur Bapuji
Talpade, the Indian who flew an unmanned aircraft, eight years before Wright
Orville Wright demonstrated on December 17th 1903 that it was possible for a manned heavier
than air machine to fly. But, in 1895, eight years earlier, the Sanskrit scholar Shivkar Bapuji
Talpade had designed a basic aircraft called Marutsakthi (meaning Power of Air) based on Vedic
technology and had it take off unmanned before a large audience in the Chowpathy beach of
Bombay. The importance of the Wright brothers lies in the fact, that it was a manned flight for a
distance of 120 feet and Orville Wright became the first man to fly. But Talpades unmanned
aircraft flew to a height of 1500 feet before crashing down and the historian Evan Koshtka, has
described Talpade as the first creator of an aircraft.
As the world observes the one hundredth anniversary of the first manned flight, it is interesting
to consider the saga of Indias 19th century first aircraft inventor for his design was entirely
based on the rich treasury of Indias Vedas. Shivkar Bapuji Talpade was born in 1864 in the
locality of Chirabazar at Dukkarwadi in Bombay.
He was a scholar of Sanskrit and from his young age was attracted by the Vaimanika Sastra
(Aeronautical Science) expounded by the great Indian sage Maharishi Bhardwaja. One western
scholar of Indology Stephen-Knapp has put in simple words or rather has tried to explain what
Talpade did and succeeded!
According to Knapp, the Vaimanika Shastra describes in detail, the construction of what is
called, the mercury vortex engine the forerunner of the ion engines being made today by NASA.
Knapp adds that additional information on the mercury engines can be found in the ancient
Vedic text called Samaranga Sutradhara. This text also devotes 230 verses, to the use of these
machines in peace and war. The Indologist William Clarendon, who has written down a detailed
description of the mercury vortex engine in his translation of Samaranga Sutradhara quotes thus
Inside the circular air frame, place the mercury-engine with its solar mercury boiler at the
aircraft center. By means of the power latent in the heated mercury which sets the driving
whirlwind in motion a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in a most marvellous

manner. Four strong mercury containers must be built into the interior structure. When these
have been heated by fire through solar or other sources the vimana (aircraft) develops thunderpower through the mercury.
NASA (National Aeronau-tical and Space Administra-tion) worlds richest/ most powerful
scientific organisation is trying to create an ion engine that is a device that uses a stream of high
velocity electrified particles instead of a blast of hot gases like in present day modern jet engines.
Surprisingly according to the bi-monthly Ancient Skies published in USA, the aircraft engines
being developed for future use by NASA by some strange coincidence also uses mercury
bombardment units powered by Solar cells! Interestingly, the impulse is generated in seven
stages. The mercury propellant is first vapourised fed into the thruster discharge chamber ionised
converted into plasma by a combination with electrons broke down electrically and then
accelerated through small openings in a screen to pass out of the engine at velocities between
1200 to 3000 kilometres per minute! But so far NASA has been able to produce an experimental
basis only a one pound of thrust by its scientists a power derivation virtually useless. But 108
years ago Talpade was able to use his knowledge of Vaimanika Shastra to produce sufficient
thrust to lift his aircraft 1500 feet into the air!
According to Indian scholar Acharya, Vaimanika Shastra deals about aeronautics including the
design of aircraft the way they can be used for transportation and other applications in detail. The
knowledge of aeronautics is described in Sanskrit in 100 sections, eight chapters, 500 principles
and 3000 slokas including 32 techniques to fly an aircraft. In fact, depending on the
classifications of eras or Yugas in modern Kaliyuga aircraft used are called Krithakavimana
flown by the power of engines by absorbing solar energies! It is feared that only portions of
Bharadwajas masterpiece Vaimanika Shas-tra survive today.
The question that comes to ones mind is, what happened to this wonderful encyclopaedia of
aeronautical knowledge accumulated by the Indian savants of yore, and why was it not used? But
in those days, such knowledge was the preserve of sages, who would not allow it to be misused,
just like the knowledge of atomic bombs is being used by terrorists today!
According to scholar Ratnakar Mahajan who wrote a brochure on Talpade. Being a Sanskrit
scholar interested in aeronautics, Talpade studied and consulted a number of Vedic treatises like
Brihad Vaimanika Shastra of Maharishi Bharadwaja Vimanachandrika of Acharya Narayan
Muni Viman yantra of Maharish Shownik Yantra Kalp by Maharishi Garg Muni Viman Bindu of
Acharya Vachaspati and Vimana Gyanarka Prakashika of Maharishi Dhundiraj. This gave him
confidence that he can build an aircraft with mercury engines. One essential factor in the creation
of these Vedic aircraft was the timing of the Suns Rays or Solar energy (as being now utilised by
NASA) when they were most effective to activate the mercury ions of the engine. Happily for
Talpade Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad of Baroda a great supporter of the Sciences in India, was
willing to help him and Talpade went ahead with his aircraft construction with mercury engines.
One day in 1895 (unfortunately the actual date is not mentioned in the Kesari newspaper of Pune
which covered the event) before an curious scholarly audience headed by the famous Indian
judge/ nationalist/ Mahadeva Govin-da Ranade and H H Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Talpade had the
good fortune to see his un manned aircraft named as Marutsakthi take off, fly to a height of
1500 feet and then fall down to earth.

But this success of an Indian scientist was not liked by the Imperial rulers. Warned by the British
Government the Maharaja of Baroda stopped helping Talpade. It is said that the remains of the
Marutsakthi were sold to foreign parties by the relatives of Talpade in order to salvage
whatever they can out of their loans to him. Talpades wife died at this critical juncture and he
was not in a mental frame to continue with his researches. But his efforts to make known the
greatness of Vedic Shastras was recognised by Indian scholars, who gave him the title of Vidya
Prakash Pra-deep.
Talpade passed away in 1916 un-honoured, in his own country.
As the world rightly honours the Wright Brothers for their achievements, we should think of
Talpade, who utilised the ancient knowledge of Sanskrit texts, to fly an aircraft, eight years
before his foreign counterparts.

First aircraft build by Indian

not Wright brothers!
Talpade The Indian Sanskrit scholar who built and flew a mercury engine
aircraft in 1895, 8 years before the Wright brothers!

Talpade

Shivkur Bapuji Talpade, flew an unmanned aircraft, eight years before the
Wright brothers demonstrated on December 17th 1903 that it was possible
for a manned heavier than air machine to fly. But, in 1895, eight years
earlier, the Sanskrit scholar Shivkar Bapuji Talpade had designed a basic
aircraft called Marutsakthi (meaning Power of Air) based on Vedic
technology
documented
in
ancient
Sanskrit
manuscripts.
His
demonstration flight took place before a large audience in the Chowpathy
beach of Bombay. The importance of the Wright brothers lies in the fact,
that it was a manned flight for a distance of 120 feet and Orville Wright
became the first man to fly. But Talpades unmanned aircraft flew to a
height of 1500 feet before crashing down and the historian Evan Koshtka,
has described Talpade as the first creator of an aircraft.

This historic day in 1895 (unfortunately the actual date is not mentioned in
the Kesari newspaper of Pune which covered the event) was witnessed by
the famous Indian judge/ nationalist/ Mahadeva Govin-da Ranade and H H
Sayaji Rao Gaekwad.
It is important to note that Talpade was no scientist, just a sanskrit scholar
who had built his aircraft entirely from the rich treasury ofIndias Vedas.
Shivkar Bapuji Talpade was born in 1864 in the locality of Chirabazar at
Dukkarwadi in Bombay. He was a scholar of Sanskrit and from his young
age was attracted by the Vaimanika Sastra (Aeronautical Science)
expounded by the great Indian sage Maharishi Bhardwaja.
Historic documents such as the Vedas and some Indian epics do mention
flight and structures termed Vimanas but nobody seems to have taken
them seriously (inspite of claims & rumors that NASA's ion engine is based
on the vedic texts). The contents of the book Vimanika Sastra and all the
innuendo put together by H Childress and Berlitz, were dismissed as
hogwash by many learned scientists. Having read the the anti-gravity
handbook and the Vaimanika Shastra translation myself, I should agree
that both leave a number of new doubts and questions in the readers mind
rather than answering them. It could be so since the original Sasthra text
itself is considered incomplete.

1800-1900 was a period of inventions- People were innovating left and

right, at a pace never attained since then. Eventually, two attempts got
recorded into the annals of aviation history. One was Santos Dumont of
Brazil and the other the Wright brothers of USA. The latter are accorded all
the credit today for being pioneers of manned, controlled flight. Dumonts
supporters argued that his 14bis flew for 722 feet in 1906-1907 after his 1901
dirigibles; The Wright brothers did their first 852 flight in 1903, but more
in secret. Brazilians argued that Dumont flew without use of catapults and
slopes to aid take off, the Wright brothers did just that. Clement Ader did a
self powered flight in 1890; or so it appears, but just 8 inches above the
ground. Then there was John Stringfellows plane in 1848. The Wright
brothers did some more sparsely witnessed flight demonstrations 19031906. But was there somebody else before the Wrights, perhaps?
Somebody who did not get his due recognition?

Well, one other person 'purportedly' flew a self powered unmanned plane
in 1895. That man was Shivkar Bapuji Talpade. His plane was called
MarutSakha. Reports concluded that he obtained the designs from his
Guru Subbaraya Shastri (who compiled Maharishi Bhardwajas Vaimanika
Shastra a collection of some parts of the original Vedic period text), that
he had his wife supporting him in these design & production endeavors,
that the plane flew only a short distance before crashing, that it had a
mercury ion engine, that he stopped his efforts after the crash due to
paucity of funds, imperial animosity & lack of sponsorship.
The problem with this story is that there is very little to corroborate it
except for the two articles, one by Times of India and one by Deccan Herald.
There is a third write up linked here.
The Times article states- In 1895 an Indian pioneer flew what is said to be
the first Indian plane in the air. The centenary year of the first successful
flight, by the Wright brothers, was celebrated from December 17, 2003. But
our own pioneer from Mumbai, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, made an aircraft
and had flown it eight years earlier. One of Talpade's students, P Satwelkar,
has chronicled that his craft called 'Marutsakha'(Friend of the Winds) flew
unmanned for a few minutes and came down.
Surprisingly according to the bi-monthly Ancient Skies published in USA,
the aircraft engines being developed for future use by NASA also uses
mercury bombardment units powered by Solar cells! Interestingly, the
impulse is generated in seven stages. The mercury propellant is first
vapourised fed into the thruster discharge chamber ionised converted into
plasma by a combination with electrons broke down electrically and then
accelerated through small openings in a screen to pass out of the engine at
velocities between 1200 to 3000 kilometres per minute! But so far NASA
has been able to produce an experimental basis only a one pound of thrust
by its scientists a power derivation virtually useless. But over 100 years ago
Talpade was able to use his knowledge of Vaimanika Shastra to produce
sufficient thrust to lift his aircraft 1500 feet into the air!

Kesari was a newspaper edited by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Marathi. Some

argue that the very fact that Kesari Bal Gangadhar

himself was editor when this article was printed, gives it complete
credibility. Some add that Shivkar Bapuji's craft only flew only to a twenty
meter height and crashed within seventeen minutes,
hence was counted largely as a failure but had he been loaned more R&D
money he might have gone into the annals of history. Anyway Talpade
supposedly lost interest in things after his wife`s death which happened
some time after the test flight, and after his own death in 1917 at the age of
53 his relatives sold the machine (in which children of the house used to
play) to Rally Brothers, a leading British exporting firm then operating in
Mumbai.

Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad of Baroda was a great supporter of the

Sciences in India, and was willing to help Talpade with funds to build his
aircraft and the mercury engines.
But the success of an Indian scientist was not liked by the Imperial rulers.
Warned by the British Government the Maharaja of Baroda stopped helping
Talpade.
Talpade passed away in 1916 unhonoured, in his own country. It is said that
the remains of the Marutsakthi (the aircraft Tapade built) were sold to a
British company by Talpades relatives
The story of the first Indian to fly a plane thus remains a myth, for lack of
further evidence. If somebody has some more concrete data to prove this
event, please feel free to provide it.

One of the conquests many attempted since Da-Vincis time or even earlier, is flight by man, powered or
un-powered. There were people who attached wings to their backs, some even attaching feathers to
their arms, but in the end injuries, hurt egos and even death were the results.
Historic documents such as the Vedas and some Indian epics do mention flight and structures termed

Vimanas but nobody seems to have taken them seriously (inspite of

claims & rumors that NASA's ion engine is based on the vedic texts). The contents of the book Vimanika
Sastra and all the innuendo put together by H Childress and Berlitz, were dismissed as hogwash by many
learned scientists. Having read the the anti-gravity handbook and the Vaimanika Shastra translation
myself, I should agree that both leave a number of new doubts and questions in the readers mind
rather than answering them. It could be so since the original Sasthra text itself is considered incomplete.
1800-1900 was a period of inventions- People were innovating left and right, at a pace never attained
since then. Eventually, two attempts got recorded into the annals of aviation history. One was Santos
Dumont of Brazil and the other the Wright brothers of USA. The latter are accorded all the credit today
for being pioneers of manned, controlled flight. Dumonts supporters argued that his 14bis flew for 722

feet in 1906-1907 after his 1901 dirigibles; The Wright brothers did their first 852 flight in 1903, but
more in secret. Brazilians argued that Dumont flew without use of catapults and slopes to aid take off,
the Wright brothers did just that. Clement Ader did a self powered flight in 1890; or so it appears, but
just 8 inches above the ground. Then there was John Stringfellows plane in 1848. The Wright brothers
did some more sparsely witnessed flight demonstrations 1903-1906. But was there somebody else
before the Wrights, perhaps? Somebody who did not get his due recognition?
Well, one other person 'purportedly' flew a self powered unmanned plane in 1895. That man was
Shivkar Bapuji Talpade. His plane was called MarutSakha. Reports concluded that he obtained the
designs from his Guru Subbaraya Shastri (who compiled Maharishi Bhardwajas Vaimanika Shastra a
collection of some parts of the original Vedic period text), that he had his wife supporting him in these
design & production endeavors, that the plane flew only a short distance before crashing, that it had a
mercury ion engine, that he stopped his efforts after the crash due to paucity of funds, imperial
animosity & lack of sponsorship.
The problem with this story is that there is very little to corroborate it except for the two articles, one by
Times of India and one by Deccan Herald. There is a third write up linked here.
The Times article states- In 1895 an Indian pioneer flew what is said to be the first Indian plane in the
air. The centenary year of the first successful flight, by the Wright brothers, was celebrated from
December 17, 2003. But our own pioneer from Mumbai, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, made an aircraft and
had flown it eight years earlier. One of Talpade's students, P Satwelkar, has chronicled that his craft
called 'Marutsakha'(Friend of the Winds) flew unmanned for a few minutes and came down.
KRN Swamy of Deccan Herald states - One day in June 1895 (unfortunately the actual date is not
mentioned in the Kesari newspaper of Pune which covered the event) before an curious scholarly
audience headed by the famous Indian judge/ nationalist/ Mahadeva Govinda Ranade and H H Sayaji
Rao Gaekwad, Talpade had the good fortune to see his unmanned aircraft named as Marutsakthi take
off, fly to a height of 1500 feet and then fall down to earth.

Doubts remain, since the Guru named Shastry later turned out to be a
disciple. Talpade passed away in 1916, the manuscript of Vaimanika Shastra was completed by Shastry
only in 1923 (he died in 1941) to make do a promise Shastry had made to the well known scientist JC
Bose. The drawings of the craft and engines were made by a TK Elappa, a draftsman from what he
thought the text meant. Then there is the fact that Talpade was a Sanskrit scholar, not really an inventor

(nor was his wife one) who could build an ion engine from incomplete Vedic text. Those interested may
checkout a critical study of Vaimanika Shastra by a few IIS students.
Kesari was a newspaper edited by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Marathi. Some argue that the very fact that
Kesari Bal Gangadhar himself was editor when this article was printed, gives it complete credibility.
Some add that Shivkar Bapuji's craft only flew only to a twenty meter height and crashed within
seventeen minutes, hence was counted largely as a failure but had he been loaned more R&D money he
might have gone into the annals of history. Anyway Talpade supposedly lost interest in things after his
wife`s death which happened some time after the test flight, and after his own death in 1917 at the age
of 53 his relatives sold the machine (in which children of the house used to play) to Rally Brothers, a
leading British exporting firm then operating in Mumbai.
The story of the first Indian to fly a plane thus remains a myth, for lack of further evidence. If somebody
has some more concrete data to prove this event, please feel free to provide it. Another question
remains unanswered. Since Subbaraya Sastry completed the book after Talpades experiment, why did
he not allude to it or add information of this very important practical experiment?
Disclaimer This article does not imply that the ancient wisdom was non existent. On the contrary the
question asked is if there is some kind of proof out there on Talpades flight and details of the kind of
craft he built, in scientific terms.

Pseudo-science must not figure in Indian

Science Congress
By Vikrant Dadawala, Mumbai Mirror | Dec 31, 2014, 08.08 AM IST
44
A
A

A scientist at NASA's Ames Research Centre in California has launched an online petition
demanding that a lecture on 'Ancient Indian Aviation Technology' to be delivered at the 102nd
Indian Science Congress in Mumbai in January be cancelled as it brings into question the
"integrity of the scientific process".
Dr Ram Prasad Gandhiraman's petition, already signed by 220 scientists and academicians
around the world, places its opposition to the lecture in the larger context of the increasing
attempts in India to mix mythology with science, and cites Prime Minister Narendra Modi
calling Lord Ganesha a product of ancient India's unparalleled knowledge of plastic surgery as an
example.

Mumbai Mirror was first to report how the organisers of the 102nd Indian Science Congress, to
be held between January 3 and 7 at Mumbai University's Kalina campus, had slipped in Vedic
mythology about aviation into the Science Congress' schedule, which is otherwise packed with
talks on ribosomes, resistance to antibiotics and the origin of life, and discourses on controlling
the cell cycle, all delivered by some of the finest scientific minds, including six Nobel laureates.
The lecture on the 'Ancient Indian Aviation Technology' is to be delivered by Captain Anand J
Bodas and Ameya Jadhav.
While speaking to Mumbai Mirror for the previous report, Bodas had claimed that the "ancient
Indian aeroplane travelled from one country to another, from one continent to another, and from
one planet to another." He also asserted that in those days aeroplanes "could move left, right, as
well as backwards, unlike modern planes which only fly forward."
Dr Gandhiraman's petition says that it is "appalling" that such a prestigious science conference is
providing a platform to pseudo-science talk. "We as scientific community should be seriously
concerned about the infiltration of pseudo-science in science curricula with backing of influential
political parties. Giving a scientific platform for a pseudo-science talk is worse than a systematic
attack that has been carried out by politically powerful pseudo-science propagandists in the
recent past. If we scientists remain passive, we are betraying not only the science, but also our
children," the petition says.
Communicating with Mumbai Mirror over the internet on Wednesday, Dr Gandhiraman, who
has previously been a research scientist with America's Universities Space Research Association
and the Dublin City University, Ireland said: "I have emailed the organisers, the chief scientific
advisor to PMO, scientific secretary and directors of a few IITs and IISc. I am now trying to
contact the Nobel laureates scheduled to attend the Science Congress to let them know that they
will be presenting at a conference that promotes pseudo-science."
Gandhiraman has also been in touch with Nobel Prize winner Prof. Paul Nurse who is due to
deliver a talk at the Indian Science Congress and is famous for his strong stance against the
distortion of scientific evidence for political or religious ends. Captain Bodas's source text for his
claims on ancient India's aviation prowess is 'Vaimanika Prakaranam', an Indian treatise on
aviation, the authorship of which is attributed to the sage Bhardwaj.
A section of scientists, however, emphasise the importance of scientifically scrutinizing all
claims about the past.
Prof S M Deshpande, one of the five authors of a study on aviation technologies in Sanskrit texts
by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore said while there is no harm in making a
presentation on ancient India's aviation achievements, care must be taken to base the talk on a
correct scientific study. "When we undertook a study of aviation in Sanskrit texts, we were
driven by great intellectual curiosity and not by any desire to dismiss it as 'psuedo-science'.
Prof Deshpande's study of the Vaimanika Shastra, the text Captain Bodas widely quotes from,
had concluded that the text "cannot be dated earlier than 1904" and that the planes described in it

are "poor concoctions" and "unimaginably horrendous from the point of view of flying".
Prof Gauri Mahulikar, head of MU's Sanskrit Department and coordinator for the session, said
that this was the first time that the Indian Science Congress had held a symposium on ancient
Indian science viewed through Sanskrit literature. "If we had chosen Sanskrit professors to talk
about the references to aviation technology in Sanskrit literature, which includes information on
how to make planes, the dress code and diet of pilots, the seven types of fuel used, people would
have dismissed us, but Captain Bodas is himself a pilot, and his co-presenter, Ameya Jadhav,
holds an MTech degree besides an MA in Sanskrit."