From: Joao
Message: 34297
Date: 2004-09-25
----- Original Message -----From: Anthony AppleyardSent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 12:43 PMSubject: [tied] Vimana-sThis group's specifications say:-
> ... our policy is to encourage stimulating debate but to discourage
> off-topic chat, crank scholarship, bad netiquette ...
When discussion gets fringe-ish, ufology sometimes creeps in,
including a tendency to cultism about supposed old Indian flying
craft called vimana-s. I have a very down-to-earth explanation for
the word and the idea, and perhaps this will shoot down some fringe-
type discussion before it happens:-
- Sanskrit [vi-ma_-na] = "apart - measure - perfect passive
participle suffix" = "measured [and set] apart" = originally "land
measured out and set apart to be used for religious purposes".
Compare Latin [templum] and Greek [temenos] from the IE root [tem]
= "cut" = setting the land apart.
- then "temple".
- then "a god's palace".
- including RavaNa's palace Pushpaka in the Ramayana. [pushpa] is
Sanskrit for "flower".
- But the story says that Pushpaka could fly; its main use in the
Ramayana was as a quick way to get Rama's army home after the battle.
- Imitating that, some people put flying devices called vimana-s into
Indian stories written later. For example, I found a flying vimana
mentioned briefly in the Srimad Bhagavatam. Also, many Indians down
the centuries included vimanas in fan-fiction written in the
Mahabharata scenario.
- When the 20th century brought real aircraft, some Indians called
them vimana-s. I have two Indian children's ABC books, and a
picture in one of them shows clearly "A is for aeroplane" and a
picture of an airliner and the word "vima_na" in the Gujarati
alphabet. (I am British.)