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Mercury Propulsion System in Vedic Vimanas and

Modern Spacecrafts
Shivanandam M.
Professor and Head,
Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya,
Kanchipuram - 631561

Received June 1, 2015 Accepted June 5, 2015

ABSTRACT Ancient Indian culture 7000 years ago knows how to create Vimanas to
traverse the sky and beyond using a technology that NASA is still trying to harness today.
There are many books and websites which forcefully and passionately assert that
technologically advanced aircraft and spacecraft were in common use over the Indian
subcontinent thousands of years ago. The sources also claim that advanced space
propulsion technology being researched by NASA is in fact directly inspired by ancient
flying machines. The references mentioned from Vedic texts such as Rig Veda, Yajur Veda,
Srimad Bhagavatham, Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Vaimanika Shastra and Samarangana
Suthtradhara cites Vimanas that fly in air, water and land. They mention various propulsion
including Mercury propulsion. Vaimanika Shastra provides complete manual for Design,
Material selection, Manufacture, Operation, Space suits, Food, Tackling enemies, Becoming
invisible etc. S.B.Talpade, Sanskrit scholar has designed and constructed an aircraft based
on Vedic principles and demonstrated the first unmanned flight.

Key words : Vedic Vimanas; Mercury Propulsion; Rig Veda; Yajur Veda; Srimad
Bhagavatham; Ramayana; Mahabharatha; Vaimanika Shastra; Samarangana
Sutradhara.

1. Introduction
Wright brothers demonstrated on December launching of SPUTNIK-1 in October 1957 by
17th 1903 that it was possible for a manned, USSR. The launch of SPUTNIK-I was followed
heavier than air machine to fly. But in 1895, by space race. In the last 50 years, USA,
eight years earlier, the Sanskrit scholar Russia and Europe has launched a variety of
S.B.Talpade designed a basic aircraft called spacecrafts within the earth and then to other
Marutsakthi based on Vedic technology and it planets. During the Vedic period (10,000AD)
took off unmanned before a large audience in in ancient India, the flying machine was called
the Chowpathy beach of Bombay. Talpade Ratha and later vimana. The Vimanas were
was the first creator of an aircraft in modern used for travel from one place to another
times [1]. place, from one country to another and

Rocket technology was not available to place between the planets.

a spacecraft into a low orbit until the

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2. Propulsion Systems Table I compares the performance of

Most of the spacecrafts orbit around earth, chemical propellants with electric ion
others orbit the sun or moon or other planets. propellant
The spacecraft need a means of moving Table 2.1 Comparison of Propellants
through the space. To move from an orbit to Velocity Specific Fuel Mass
Propellants
Km/s impulse Kg
another, the spacecraft has to escape the
Solid 1 100 190,000
gravitational attraction of the planet and
Bi chemicals 5 500 8,200
accelerate to a velocity sufficient to Ion Thruster 50 5000 620
counteract the planet’s gravitational pull or 2.2 Propellants
field. Such high acceleration requires a lot of Following are the propellants used in electric
energy. The journey of any spacecraft starts propulsion.
with rocket propelled vehicle which is the  Mercury
only means of overcoming the earth’s  Xenon
gravitational field [2]. Propulsion system is  Argon
required to move the spacecraft to further  Krypton
orbit.  Hydrogen
2.1 Electric Propulsion The thrusters are called after the propellants
During the early days, chemical propulsion and method of acceleration as:
was used where the chemical reactions of the  Ion thrusters
propellant is used to produce a flow of fast  Hall thrusters
moving hot gas. Since the chemical thrusters  Plasma thrusters
are unable to generate high velocity and high Ion and plasma thrusters are used in many
impulse, electric propulsion (EPS) was spacecrafts for interplanetary missions [4].
developed. Electric propulsion is a generic Mercury vortex propulsion cited in Vedic
name encompassing all the ways of texts is the forerunner for ion thrusters. The
accelerating a propellant using electric image of a hall thruster is shown in Fig.1
power. In the electric propulsion, the charged
particles of the propellants are set in motion
by electric field and magnetic field
accelerates them. With electric field and
magnetic field, the charged particles are
accelerated and then ejected by the thrusters,
thus producing the desired velocity and
impulse [3]. Generic name is ion thruster.
Fig.1 Hall thruster
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2.3 NASAs Ion Engine  Rig Veda

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space  Yajur Veda
Administration) is trying to create an ion  Srimad Bhagavatham
engine, a device that uses a stream of high  Ramayana
velocity electrified particles instead of a blast  Mahabharata
of hot gases like in present jet engine. The  Vaimanika Sashtra
future spacecraft engine planned by NASA  Samarangana Sutradhara
uses mercury bombardment units powered  Manuscripts from Ashoka
by solar cells. The mercury propellant is A brief description is as follows.
vaporized, fed into the thruster discharge
3.1 Rig Veda
chamber, ionized, converted into plasma, and
The Rig Veda, the oldest document of the
accelerated through small openings to pass
human race includes references to the
out of the engine at velocities between 1200
following types of Vimanas and propulsion
to 3000 kilometers per minute. But, so far
[5].
NASA is successful only to one pound of
 Jalayan
thrust which is inadequate. But 108 years
A vimana designed to operate in water and
ago, S.B.Talpade, a Sanskrit scholar of
air (Rig Veda 6.58.3)
Bombay was able to use the knowledge of
 Kaara
Vaimanika Shastra to produce sufficient
A vimana that operate in ground and water
thrust to lift his aircraft 1500 feet into the air.
(Rig Veda 9.14.1)
2.4 Advantages of EPS
 Tritala
The advantages of EPS are as follows.
A vimana consisting of three floors (Rig Veda
 Requires less propellants
3.14.1)
 More efficient
 Tri Chakra Ratha
 Propellant ejection is 20 times faster
A three wheeled vimana designed to operate
 Regulates the impulse accurately
in air (Rig Veda 4.36.1)
 Precise control of position and
 Vayu Ratha
orientation of spacecraft
A vimana powered by wind or gas (Rig Veda
5.41.6)
3. References from Vedic literatures
 Vidyut Ratha
The following ancient literatures mention
A vimana powered by solar energy (Rig Veda
Vimanas (Ratha, air chariots, airplanes,
3.14.1).
spaceships and spacecrafts) and propulsion
Figure below shows a Rukma Vimana.
systems.

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3.4 Ramayana
The seven greatest capital cities of Rama,
developed fifteen thousand years ago in
northern India and Pakistan was known as
“The Seven Rishis Cities”. The people in the
seven cities used different types of Vimanas
such as double deck, circular shaped vimana
Fig.2 Rukma Vimana with portholes and a dome.
3.2 Yajur Veda They flew with the speed of sound and gave a
Yajur Veda 10.19 quotes the following [6]. melodious sound. The epic describes Vimanas
 Royal skilled engineers built sea boats of various shapes such as saucer shaped and
propelled on water. long cylindrical shaped and various sizes
 Vimanas move and fly upward in the such as Ahnihotra with two engines, elephant
midst of clouds. Vimanas with multi engines and others
 Vimanas move as boats on water and named after kingfisher, ibis and other
fly over clouds. animals. Generally Vimanas fall into two
3.3 Srimad Bhagavatham categories. Manmade spacecrafts that
Srimad Bhagavatham (sixth canto, para 3) resemble aircraft and fly with birdlike wings
describes king Citaketu traveling in the outer [8]. Spacecrafts with unstreamlined
space on a brilliantly effulgent airplane given structures fly in a mysterious manner and
by Lord Vishnu saw Lord Shiva [7]. The generally are not made by human beings.
arrows released by Lord Shiva appeared like They have features of UFO’s. The epic cites
fiery beams, emanating from the sun and Pushpaga Vimana with swan soared into the
covered the three residential Vimanas which sky with loud noise with king Ravana, Sita
could no longer be seen. The figure below and Trijatta to make Sita to see the battle
shows an alien in the Vimana. field.
3.5 Mahabharata
Flying Vimanas were cited at 41 places in
Mahabharata. The asura king Salva had an
aerial vehicle called Saubha Vimana with
which he attacked Dwaraka capital of Lord
Krishna. He began to shower missiles and
landed in the high seas. From one krosa

Fig.3.Alien in the Vimana (1500 meters) above the ground, Salva gave a

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fierce fight with Krishna who threw a Bharadwaja through the report of Shri
powerful chakra which hit the vimana in the K.P.N.Sastry, the Mysore representative of
middle and broke it into pieces. The damaged Press Trust of India in 1952. The Vaimanika
vimana fall in the sea. According to Drona Shastra, Science of Aeronautics is an early
parva, Vimanas are described as sphere 20th century Sanskrit Text on Aeronautics
shaped and move at great speed generated by obtained by mental channeling, about the
mercury propulsion. The Vimanas moved like construction of Vimanas, the chariots of the
an UFO going up, down, backwards and Gods. It contains 3000 shlokas in 8 chapters
forwards. Varna parva, section XLIII [10].

describes the aerial journey of Arjuna to Lord Brahma, the chief demigod and

Amravati, city of Indra. Arjuna observed engineer of the Universe have developed

Vimanas stationed properly, frequent landing several Vimanas for other Gods and

and takeoff. Thousands of celestial Vimanas Demigods. These were in various natural

capable of going everywhere at will and shapes and incorporated the use of wings

stationed in proper place. such as peacocks, eagle, swans etc. Other

Hitler and the Nazi were interested in ancient Vimanas were developed for human beings in

India and Tibet and sent expeditions to both the Earth by great seers of Vedic knowledge

these places in order to gather esoteric and aliens in other planets. In the course of

evidence. It was from these people that the time, there were three basic types of

Nazis gained some of their scientific Vimanas. In Tretayuga, men were adopting in

information. According to Drona parva, a mantras. The Vimanas of that age were

vimana shaped like a sphere and fly along at powered by means of knowledge of mantras.

great speed on a mighty wind generated by In Dvaparayuga, men had developed

mercury propulsion [9]. It is possible that considerable knowledge of tantra or ritual.

mercury did have something to do with The Vimanas of this Yuga were powered by

propulsion or more possibly with guidance the use of tantric knowledge. In Kaliyuga,

system. Soviet scientists have discovered age knowledge of both mantra and tantra are

old instruments used in navigating cosmic deficient. The Vimanas of this age are known

vehicles. The devices are hemispherical as kritaka, artificial or mechanical. Vaimanika

objects of glass or porcelain ending in a cone Shastra lists 25 variations of the mantrika

with a drop of mercury inside. Vimanas, 56 variations of tantrica Vimanas

3.6 Vaimanika Sastra and 25 varieties of kritakash Vimanas. With

The world came to know the existence of the regard to the shape and construction, there is

manuscript on Vimanas by Maharishi not much difference. They differ only by

propulsion.
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The text contain flight manuals, aerial routes, 3.7 Manuscripts by Asoka
procedures for normal and forced landings, The Indian Emperor Asoka started a “Secret
instructions regarding the condition of the Society of the Nine Unknown Men”, great
pilots, clothes to wear while flying, the food Indian scientists who catalogued the many
to eat, spare parts required, materials for sciences. Asoka kept their work secret
craft manufacture, power supplies and so on. because he was afraid that the advanced
The text also contains instructions on science catalogued by these men, culled from
avoiding enemy craft, to hear and see in ancient Indian sources, would be used for the
enemy aircrafts, how to become invisible and evil purpose of war. The “Nine unknown
tactics to avoid collisions with birds. Men” wrote a total of nine books, presumably
The Vaimanika Shastra describes the one each. One of the books is “The Secrets of
construction of mercury vortex engine. This Gravitation” which dealt with “Gravity
is same as Vedic ion engine propelled by the Control”. It is kept in a secret library in India,
use of mercury. Mercury engines were used Tibet or perhaps even in North America [11].
in many Vimanas. In mercury engine, Years ago, the Chinese discovered some
propellant tanks are filled with liquid air Sanskrit documents in Lhasa, Tibet and sent
obtained from the atmosphere. The air is them to the University of Chandigarh for
injected into expansion chamber and heated translation. As per Dr.Ruth Reyana of the
by mercury. The superheated M.H.D plasma University, the documents contain directions
air will expand through the for building interstellar spaceships. The
nozzle. The strange ball of light surrounding propulsion was “Anti-Gravitational”, a
the craft is the magneto hydrodynamic centrifugal force strong enough to counteract
plasma, a hot re circulating air flow. The ball all gravitational pull. The manuscripts reveal
of light makes the craft to appear alive. When the secrets of “Antima” the cap of invisibility
the ionized bubble of air surrounding craft or and “Garima” the secret of becoming as heavy
UFO is controlled, the ionization of the air as a mountain.
may shift through every color of the 3.8 Samarangana Sutradhara
spectrum, obscuring the aircraft from view Samarangana Sutradhara is a manuscript
and disappear. composed in Sanskrit by king Bhoja of Dhar
When mercury is heated, it gives hot vapor in 11th century A.D. The treatise deals with
which is poisonous. When radioactive technical subjects such as town planning,
mercury is heated, emit radiation and when house architecture, temple architecture and
leaked become dangerous to pilot and crew. sculptural arts together with Mudras, canons
of painting. Samarangana Sutradhara is in

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eighty three chapters with chapter thirty one

specializing in the mechanical contrivances
and yantras. The chapter is devoted to the
construction and operation of several kinds
of aircraft having various methods of
propulsion [12].
King Bhoja used the Sanskrit term yantras
often than the familiar term vimana. His
knowledge was based on Hindu manuscripts
which were ancient even in his time. Some of Fig.4.Mercury Propulsion
the techniques of manufacture described The pilot set the dual winged, drive
therein have been in use by British and whirlwind in motion and the pilot by means
American aircraft companies since World of mercury power may travel a great distance
War 1 and found to be sound aeronautical in the sky. There follows the description of a
principles even though described nearly a much larger, more complex Vimanas
thousand years earlier in this old Sanskrit powered by four mercury engines.
work. Several types of aerial machines were
4. Specialties of Pushpaga Vimana
described and cover those vimana capable of
The Pushpaga Vimana is often called Flying
flying into solar sphere and interstellar travel.
Palace. Pushpaga in Sanskrit means Flowers.
The yantras body shall be strong and durable,
It is the first flying Vimana mentioned in
made of light materials and the wings joined
Hindu mythology. The Pushpaga Vimana was
smoothly with invisible seams. It can carry
originally made by Maya for Kubera, the God
passengers. It can also be made small and
of wealth, but was later stolen along with
compact and move in silence. Certain aircraft
Lanka, by his half-brother, the demon king
described seem to be winged like modern
Ravana. The special characteristics of this
airplane but it cannot go backwards nor did it
Vimana is that whatever may be the number
can ascend or descend vertically. Inside the
of people sitting in it, always there will be one
vimana, one must place the mercury engine
more seat vacant i.e. if N passengers sit, there
and an Iron heating apparatus properly
will be (N+I) seats. It was basically a Vimana
mounted beneath the engine. The figure
that could soar the skies for long distances
below shows the operation of Mercury
[13]. The figure below shows Pushpaga
propulsion.
Vimana.

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6. Ancient Vimanas in Time Well

A 5000 year old Vimana from ancient India
was recently discovered in a cave stuck in a
“Time Well” in Afghanistan in 2010 [15]. It
caused the disappearance of eight American
soldiers, likely incinerated, while trying to
extract it from the cave. The report suggested
that the Vimana is still activating and hence
Fig.5.Pushpaga Vimana caused the death of 8 soldiers. The Figure
below shows the soldiers entering the cave
5. Vimanas and UFOs containing Time Well.
David Childress, in his book, Vimana Aircraft
of Ancient India & Atlantics[ ] provided many
reports, both recent and from the last few
hundred years, that describes eye witness
accounts of encounters with UFOs that are no
different in size and shape than those
described in these ancient Vedic texts. When
the pilots are seen closer, they are human
like, sometimes with an oriental appearance,
in clothes that are relatively modern in style. Fig. 6. Cave encasing Vimana in Time Well
In other reports, the craft may have alien type A group of soldiers made the discovery on a
on board along with ordinary humans mission in the desert of Afghanistan. The
navigating the craft [14]. The UFOs that are Vimana was protected by a strange energy
seen around the world may not be from barrier that was preventing the troops from
distant galaxy, but may be from a secret extracting the Vimana.
human society or even military installation. An Electromagnetic Radiation – Gravity Field,
Many of the Vedic texts describe postulated by Einstein appears to protect the
interplanetary travel. So even if these Vimana in the Time Well. The unified Field
machines are from other planet, they may be theory is rumored to be behind the infamous
using the same principle of propulsion that American World War II experiment in
was described in the universal Vedic teleportation called Philadelphia Experiment
literature. that in 1943 caused the sudden
disappearance of US soldiers.

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7. Conclusions 5. Vimanas and Flying Machines in Vedic

The Universal Vedic literatures cited provide Literature, www.ancientufo.

basic information to design, construct and fly Org/2014/07/vimanas

6. Ancient Aliens/Vimanas-Arcturi,
hovercraft, aircraft and spacecraft for
www.arcturi.com/Ancient Aliens/
interplanetary travel. Vaimanika Shastra and
Vimanas.
Samarangana Suthtradhara provide material
7. Rukma Vimana-Ancient Vimanas/
information required for interplanetary
Mathomathi , www.mathomathis.
travel and reentry. Ion propulsion cited Blogspot.com /UFO
10,000 years ago enable a spacecraft invisible 8. Hindu Theories of Creation- Crystalinks,
to others. Tele-audio and Tele-dristi are www.crystalinks.com/ Vedic.html
excellent gift from Vedic manuscripts to 9. Science & Technology in Mahabharatha: use

modern world. The Space Agencies in India of Aircrafts, www.mhabharahascience.

and abroad shall associate in applied blogspot. Com/P/use of aircrafts

10. Vaimanika Shastra, www.hindu Wisdom
research on the Vedic findings and progress
.info/vimanas
in space travel.
11. Ashoka’s Secret Society of Nine Men-
Sanskrit-Indian Culture, www.sanskritm
References
agazine.com/Feb 15, 2014.
1. Ancient Vimana Aircraft, www.bibliotec
12. Sundarshan Kumar Sharma,
apleyades.net/vimanas.
“Samarangana Sutradhara of Bhoja
2. Joshua L. Rovey, “Deep Space Propulsion
Deva”, ISBN 81-7110-302-2, Parimal
System”, Missouri S&T Physics
Publications, Delhi, 2007.
Colloquium, Missouri University of
13. Pushpaga Vimana of Ravana,
Science and Technology, 2010.
www.bharatgyanblog.wordpress.
3. Electric Propulsion Technology
Com/2012
Programmes, European Space Agency,
14. Vimanas and UFO, www.stephen-
The Netherlands, ISSN 0250-1589, 2002.
Knapp.com/ufos and vimanas
4. Solar Electric Propulsion Technology
15. Vimana (UFO) Found in cave in
Development, Pre-Decisional NASA
Afganistan, www.jimmyprophet.
International Document, NASA, USA.
Wordpress.com/vimana-ufo

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit

them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
Steve Jobs

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