Many have undertaken to reveal that ancient cultures, in the context of the Vimanas, Indian-Hindu, possessed and utilized technologies—devices and weapons—that match and surpass those of our modern day.
However interesting, captivating, and good story making this all may be; the fact is that such claims are short on facts and long on tall tales.
Following are references to two researchers who have considered and dissected such claims and have exposes much of their folly.
Firstly, there is Chris White most well know within this context from his documentary titled Ancient Aliens Debunked. In this case, there is a section on his website specifically dealing with Vimanas which consists of the Vimana section of his documentary as well as a transcript; find the page/transcript here and see the embeded video.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is Chris White’s video on Vimana-UFOs
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In his article The Case of the False Quotations – How Ancient Astronaut Theorists Faked a Hindu Nuclear Explosion, Jason Colavito writes:
Ancient Astronaut Theorists (AATs for short) have spent fifty years arguing that ancient Hindu texts present firsthand reports of prehistoric nuclear explosions. I have discussed and debunked the case of nuclear weapons in my eBook Ancient Atom Bombs, where a fuller discussion of the claim can be found.
You can download the ebook for free here.
He notes that since most researchers seeking to debunk such claims:
…focus on, logically enough, the science involved since the most prominent debunkers tend to be physicists, evolutionary biologists, astronomers, etc. Fewer are experts in history and the humanities, which AATs have exploited, basing much of their evidence on ancient texts and artwork that hard scientists are not always able to effectively debunk on the merits of individual cases. Even an archaeologist, by dint of specialization, may not have the broad cross-cultural knowledge to spot the mistake in a quotation from a sacred text from an unfamiliar culture or time period.
Thus, in the referenced article, Colavito details claims versus facts in a very detailed—quotation and citation filled—manner. As he puts it:
Here, I’d like to focus on a problem with texts used by the AATs to show exactly how a false belief arises, how it is sustained, and how a mixture of ignorance, half-truths, and misrepresentation creates fanciful new extraterrestrial “texts” out of very different originals. Our sample text will be an alleged “quotation” from the Mahabharata “reporting” on a nuclear explosion and its aftermath.
Related readings in this regard are my articles on Erich Von Daniken, in general, and Robert K. G. Temple of The Sirius Mystery fame or rather, infamy, in particular.
In fact, most Vimana proponents focus in on the Vaimanika Shastra or Vymaanika-Shaastra which is not an ancient text but was spirit medium channeled in 1918 AD. The published texts has the following upon its original cover:
Maharishi Bharadwaaja’s Vymaanika-Shaastra or Science of Aeronautics. Part of his unknown work “Yantra Sarvasva” or “All About Machines” as revelaed to vernerable Pandit Subbaraya Sastry and recorded in hand-written Sanskrit Form.
But such considerations are not only relevant to Ancient Astronaut Theorists from half a century ago since the same claims are still being promulgated by Ancient Alien Theorists today—with more exposure than ever; and much of it goes back to Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier 1960 AD book, Morning of the Magicians which Colavito refers to as being an “outrageous, Fortean compendium of conspiracies, misinterpretations, and lies.”
Jason Colavito also wrote an article entitled Vimana Aircraft of India: More Sloppy Scholarship from David Childress about the very same David Childress who, during the Ancient Aliens “The Satan Conspiracy” episode sates, “Satan’s not such a bad guy…we become who we are and ultimately that is to be like our makers; to become gods ourselves.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Watch Childress state it for himself in the video, “Ancient Aliens’ Luciferian Gnosticism”
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In this case, David Childress has written:
According to ancient Indian texts, the people had flying machines which were called ‘vimanas’. The ancient Indian epic describes a vimana as a double-deck, circular aircraft with portholes and a dome, much as we would imagine a flying saucer.
Colavito notes:
The vimana-as-UFO myth is a case of “alternative” scholars misunderstanding the development of Hindu mythology while accepting without question false texts as true. Discussed chronologically, the mystery of the vimanas vanishes.
In the case of this article, he provides a timeline, as it were, of texts, words and definitions.
In short, Chris White and Jason Colavito cover much ground in the area of Vimana-UFOs and provide citations for further research.