Scientist challenges ancient flight theory

 Prof H S Mukunda, one of the five scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) whose study had debunked the concepts of Vaimanika Shastra in 1974, said he was tempted to end the controversy surrounding ancient Indian aviation technology last year by calling for a unique contest.

He was addressing a packed house at the South Zonal Educational Convention of the All India Save Education Committee (AISEC) here on Sunday.

“I will pay Rs 50,000 to anyone who can build an aircraft using the same concepts in the book (Vaimanika Shastra)... big or small, it does not matter, but it should have a sustained flight. I was tempted to say this at that time but refrained from doing so,” said Prof Mukunda.

Last year, controversies marred the 102nd Indian Science Congress in Mumbai, when some lectures tried to give credence to theories about the presence of planes that flew backwards and between planets during the Vedic age.

Stating that the laws of science would be the same in ancient or modern times, Prof Mukunda said, “If it flies today, it could have flown yesterday. The most basic question ‘does it fly?’ needs to be answered.”

Besides the theories about aviation – ancient or modern, Mukunda said that a successful flight involved a number of “intricacies” of flying and tackling of a number of engineering problems whose solutions were not easy to arrive at.

Mukunda regaled the audience with anecdotes from their work on the paper ‘A Critical Study of the Work Vaimanika Shastra.’

He said that not only had they formed Sanskrit Sangha, a group at IISc to study anything of scientific relevance in ancient Indian Sanskrit literature, they had also consulted the Sathya Sai Baba regarding the Shastra.