#104/#001I Replies to Comments of Sayooj Valsan

Sayooj Valsan said...(at post No. 060) Vimana means Aircraft. And Yes it was an Aircraft. Many depictions on war in Ramayana and Mahabharata are comparable to modern nuclear war. Science is just discovering everything. And For your information, Human walked on earth millions of years ago.

REPLY This verse is very clear that Ravana was using mule driven cart. Verses whereby Sugriva said that he saw Sita being carried by Ravana, and that she was on his lap: 4-6-8 to 4-6-10 tyaja shokam mahaabaaho taam kaantaam aanayaami te anumaanaat tu jaanaami maithilii saa na samshayaha hriyamaan'aa mayaa drusht'aa rakshasaa rauudra karmaNaa kroshantii raama raameti Lakshman'eti ca visvaram sphurantii raavan'asya ankee pannageendra vadhuuh yathaa. Sugriva didn't say that he did see an aircraft flying in the sky. Difficult to say from this verse whether Ravana used aircraft or mule cart. Either mule cart should be incorrect or aircraft should be incorrect. The concept of Pushpaka aircraft seems to be a later day insertion by priests. Ramayana does not have any indications that metallurgy, aircraft making were developed either in Ayodhya or in Lanka. Ravana got Pushpaka from Kubera, a demy God. We need more proof to accept Pushpaka aircraft as some invention designed and manufactured on earth in a factory. Ramayana is said to have consolidated and evolved to a sort of a tangible book, during the Gupta period. There are no indications of airplane-making craft having developed, at least during the Gupta period. Nobody will use an inferior mode of transport , when a superior mode of transport is available. EXAMPLES Pratibha Patil, the President of India has her own Presidential Aircraft. Manomohan Singh, the Prime Minister has his own Prime Ministerial Aircraft. These cost Rs. 10 billion. Both have additional special aircraft for their retinue and accompanying bhajan media. Chief Minister of every State in India uses a helicopter. Tahasildars and Block Development Officers use jeeps. Cricketers, film stars and industrialists use their own planes, or at least chartered planes. Why nobody uses a bullock cart or mule cart ? The Collector of Srikakulam District in Andhra Pradesh was recently carried on a charpoy by villagers to cross a stream. Why didn't he use his legs or a mule cart? Reason: Nobody uses an inferior transport, when a more comfortable mode is available. Ravana , apparently used a mule cart, probably because better modes of transport were not available. Kishkindha might not have had mule carts. Had there been mule carts, Rama would not have mounted Hanuman and Lakshmana would not have mounted Sugriva. Every Vanara chieftain would have chosen to travel on mule carts with couches and bedrolls spread therein to enable the leaders sleep in comfort. Won't Manmohan and Pratibha sleep in their special aircraft? Won't Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparti sleep in his own aircraft when he flies to and fro Whitefield and Kodai Canal? Would Rama have chosen a mule's cart (if available in Kishkindha), instead of Hanuman's shoulders? Verses 6-4-18 and 6-4-19 (Yuddha Kanda, 4th Sarga, verses 18 and 19) do not show whether Hanuman VOLUNTARILY offered Rama to carry him on shoulders? Would Angada have come forward with bent shoulders to carry Lakshmana? These two verses show that Rama ordered. Hanuman and Angada could not probably say "NO". It is like this. Will any Congress leader refuse to carry Ms. Sonia Gandhi on his shoulders, if she orders him? Definitely not. Direct Development of aeronautical industry in ancient India, without corresponding development of surface and water transportation You cannot reach third floor without passing through the first and second floors, whether using an elevator or by climbing stairs . Normal logic requires, (though there may be some exceptions), that automobile, road, rail and and shipping modes of transportation have to sufficiently develop, before large aircraft like Pushpaka are made. We cannot create an aircraft overnight without developing high rpm combustion engines. What engine did Pushpak was fitted with? What was its fuel? SUMMARY Ravana could not have come all the way from Sri Lanka to Godavari (1500 km. away) , on a mule-driven cart. That gives us a clue that Ravan's Lanka was an island on the River Godavari, or on the River Sapta Godavari near Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh. One can be faithful to one's own religion and patriotic to one's own country, without sacrificing common sense and reason. Please permit me to quote from Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali:

Mind Without Fear Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--- Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.