From: Âàäèì Ïîíàðÿäîâ
Message: 34341
Date: 2004-09-28
>This group's specifications say:-As long as I know, <vimana> is a common Hindi word for the airplane either.
>> ... 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.)
>