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{{short description|Flying palaces or chariots described in Hindu texts and Sanskrit epics}}{{Distinguish|Vamana}}{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|Pushpaka Vimana}}
[[File:The Celestial Chariot (6124515635).jpg|thumb|The Pushpaka vimana flying in the sky.]]
'''Vimāna''' are mythological flying palaces or chariots described in [[Hindu texts]] and [[Sanskrit epics]]. The "Pushpaka Vimana" of [[Ravana]] (who took it from [[Kubera]]; Rama returned it to Kubera) is the most quoted example of a vimana. Vimanas are also mentioned in [[Jain texts]].

==Etymology==
[[File:West Pediment, Phnom Rung 0434.jpg|thumb|Sculpture of the Pushpaka vimana, as a temple flying in the sky.]]
The [[Sanskrit]] word ''vimāna'' (विमान) literally means "measuring out, traversing" or "having been measured out". [[Monier Monier-Williams]] defines ''vimāna'' as "a car or a chariot of the gods, any self-moving aerial car sometimes serving as a seat or throne, sometimes self-moving and carrying its occupant through the air; other descriptions make the Vimana more like a house or palace, and one kind is said to be seven stories high", and quotes the [[Pushpaka Vimana]] of [[Ravana]] as an example. It may denote any car or vehicle, especially a bier or a ship as well as a palace of an emperor, especially with seven stories.<ref>[http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0980-vimalaya.jpg Monier-Williams, ''Sanskrit-English Dictionary'']</ref> In some Indian languages like [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]], and Hindi, ''vimana'' or ''vimanam'' means "aircraft", for example in the town name [[Vimanapura]] (a suburb of [[Bangalore]]) and Vimannagar, a town in Pune. In another context, [[Vimanam (tower)|Vimana]] is a feature in Hindu temple architecture.

==Vedas==
[[File:Rama welcomed.jpg|thumb|Pushpaka vimana depicted three times, twice flying in the sky and once landed on the ground.]]
The predecessors of the flying ''vimanas'' of the [[Sanskrit epics]] are the flying chariots employed by various gods in the [[Veda]]s: the Sun (see [[Sun chariot]]) and [[Indra]] and several other Vedic deities are transported by flying wheeled [[chariot]]s pulled by animals, usually horses.

The existing ''[[Rigveda]]'' versions do not mention vimanas, but verses from, [[Mandala 1|RV 1]].164.47-48, also known as The Riddle Hymn, were taken as evidence for a spacecraft by Indian philosopher and social leader [[Dayananda Saraswati]] who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas.

:47. ''{{IAST|kr̥ṣṇáṃ niyā́naṃ hárayaḥ suparṇā apó vásānā dívam útpatanti}}''
: ''{{IAST|tá ā́vavr̥trant sádanād r̥tásya ā́d ídghr̥téna pr̥thivī́ vyúdyate}}''
:48. ''{{IAST|dvā́daśa pradháyaś cakrám ékaṃ trī́ṇi nábhyāni ká u tác ciketa}}''
: ''{{IAST|tásmint sākáṃ triśatā́ ná śaṅkávo 'rpitā́ḥ ṣaṣṭír ná calācalā́saḥ}}<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Thomson|first=Karen|last2=Slocum|first2=Jonathan|title=Rigveda, Book 1: Metrically Restored Text|url=https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/lrc/rigveda/RV01.php#H164|url-status=live|website=University of Texas at Austin: Linguistics Research Center}}</ref>''

:47. Along the dark course, tawny well-feathered (birds) [=flames], clothing themselves in the waters, fly up toward heaven.|<br>
:These have returned here (as rain) from the seat of truth [=heaven]. Only then is the earth moistened with ghee.||<br>
:48. The chariot-wheel (of the Sun) is one, its wheel-segments are twelve, its wheel-naves are three: who understands this?|<br>
:They [=the days] that wander on and on are fitted together on that, like three hundred pegs, like sixty (more).|| <br>
::-Translator: [Stephanie W. Jamison, Joel P. Brereton]<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephanie Jamison|title=The Rigveda –– Earliest Religious Poetry of :India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1LTRDwAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0190633394|page=359}}</ref>

Dayananda Saraswati interpreted these verses to mean:
:"jumping into space speedily with a craft using fire and water ... containing twelve stamghas (pillars), one wheel, three machines, 300 pivots, and 60 instruments."<ref>cited after {{cite journal |last=Mukunda |first=H.S. |author2=Deshpande, S.M. |author3=Nagendra, H.R. |author4=Prabhu, A. |author5=Govindraju, S.P.|year=1974|title=A critical study of the work "Vyamanika Shastra" |journal=Scientific Opinion | pages=5–12| url = http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in/site/Portals/0/Publications/ReferedJournal/ACriticalStudyOfTheWorkVaimanikaShastra.pdf |access-date= 2007-09-03}} p. 5.</ref>

Others may interpret it merely as a flowery way of saying the year is made of 12 months or 3 seasons or about 360 days.

==Hindu epics==
[[File:Ravana seizes the chariot Puspaka from Kuvera.jpg|thumb|right|Ravana rides his Vimana, Pushpaka.]]
===Ramayana===
In the [[Ramayana]], the ''pushpaka'' ("flowery") vimana of [[Ravana]] is described as follows:
:"''The Pushpaka Vimana that resembles the Sun and belongs to my brother was brought by the powerful Ravana; that aerial and excellent Vimana going everywhere at will ... that chariot resembling a bright cloud in the sky ... and the King [Rama] got in, and the excellent chariot at the command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere.'''"<ref>Dutt, Manatha Nath (translator), ''Ramayana'', Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1892 and New York, 1910.</ref>

It is the first flying vimana mentioned in existing [[Hindu]] texts (as distinct from the gods' flying horse-drawn chariots).
Pushpaka was originally made by [[Vishvakarma|Vishwakarma]] for [[Brahma]], the Hindu god of creation; later Brahma gave it to [[Kubera]], the God of wealth; but it was later stolen, along with [[Lanka]], by his [[half-brother]], king Ravana.

==Jain literature==
Vimāna-vāsin ('dweller in vimāna') is a class of deities who served the {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara Mahā-vīra}}.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8si5ZrsP90UC&q=Jaina+vimana+vehicle&pg=PA169|author=Hermann Jacobi|title=Jaina Sūtras|page=169|isbn=9781605067278|year=2008}}</ref> These Vaimānika deities dwell in the [[Jain cosmology#Urdhva Loka, the upper world|Ūrdhva Loka heavens]].
According to the ''Kalpa Sūtra'' of Bhadra-bāhu, the 24th {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara Mahā-vīra}} himself emerged from the great {{IAST|vimāna Puṣpa-uttara}};<ref>[http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm (2)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208115935/http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm |date=December 8, 2008 }}</ref> whereas the 22nd {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara Ariṣṭa-nemi}} emerged from the great vimāna Aparijita.<ref>[http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm (171)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208115935/http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm |date=December 8, 2008 }}</ref>
The {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara-s Abhinandana}} (4th) and Sumati-nātha (5th) both<ref>Johann Georg Buhler (ed. by James Burgess) : ''The Indian Sect of the Jainas''. London : Luzac, 1903. p. 67</ref> traveled through the sky in the "Jayanta-vimāna", namely the great vimāna Sarva-artha-siddhi, which was owned by<ref>Johann Georg Buhler (ed. by James Burgess) : ''The Indian Sect of the Jainas''. London : Luzac, 1903. p. 74</ref> the Jayanta deities; whereas the {{IAST|tīrthaṃkara Dharma-nātha}} (15th) traveled through the sky in the "Vijaya-vimāna".<ref>Johann Georg Buhler (ed. by James Burgess) : ''The Indian Sect of the Jainas''. London : Luzac, 1903. p. 69</ref> A vimāna may be seen in a dream, such as the nalinī-gulma.<ref>Saryu Doshi (transl. by Thomas Dix) : ''Dharma Vihara, Ranakpur''. Axel Menges, 1995. p. 11a.</ref><ref>[http://www.eternalmewar.in/User/Research/WikiDescription.aspx?Id=RANAKPUR,%20FOUNDING%20OF ''Mewar Encyclopedia'', s.v. "Ranakpur, founding of"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721155726/http://www.eternalmewar.in/User/Research/WikiDescription.aspx?Id=RANAKPUR,%20FOUNDING%20OF |date=July 21, 2011 }}</ref>

== Ashoka Edict IV ==
Ashoka mentions viman or an aerial chariot as part of the festivities or procession which were organised during his reign.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Eugen Hultzsch|url=http://archive.org/details/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch|title=Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch|date=1925|pages=30–31|language=sa}}</ref>
{{Quotation|text=In times past, for many hundreds of years, there had ever been promoted the killing of animals and the hurting of living beings, discourtesy to relatives, (and) discourtesy to Sramanas and Brahmanas.

But now, in consequence of the practice of morality on the part of king Devanampriya Priyadarsin, the sound of drums has become the sound of morality, showing the people representations of aerial chariots, elephants, masses of fire, and other divine figures.|author=Ashoka|title=|source=Major rock Edict no IV}}

==''Vaimānika Shāstra''==
{{main|Vaimānika Shāstra}}
[[File:Vaimanika Shastra Shakuna illustration.jpg|thumb|right|upright| An illustration of the ''Shakuna Vimana'' that is supposed to fly like a bird with hinged wings and tail.<ref name="Mukunda 1974">*{{cite journal |last=Mukunda |first=H.S. |author2=Deshpande, S.M. |author3=Nagendra, H.R. |author4=Prabhu, A. |author5=Govindraju, S.P.|year=1974|title=A critical study of the work "Vyamanika Shastra" |journal=Scientific Opinion | pages=5–12| url = http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in/site/Portals/0/Publications/ReferedJournal/ACriticalStudyOfTheWorkVaimanikaShastra.pdf |access-date= 2007-09-03}}</ref>]]
The ''[[Vaimānika Shāstra]]'' is an early 20th-century [[Sanskrit]] text on aeronautics, obtained allegedly by mental [[Mediumship|channeling]], about the construction of ''vimāna''s, the "chariots of the Gods". The existence of the text was revealed in 1952 by G. R. Josyer, according to whom it was written by one Pandit Subbaraya Shastry, who dictated it in 1918–1923. A Hindi translation was published in 1959, the Sanskrit text with an English translation in 1973. It has 3000 [[shloka]]s in 8 chapters. Subbaraya Shastry allegedly stated that the content was dictated to him by [[Maharishi]] [[Bharadvaja]].<ref>Childress (1991), p. 109</ref> A study by aeronautical and mechanical engineering at [[Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore]] in 1974 concluded that the aircraft described in the text were "poor concoctions" and that the author showed a complete lack of understanding of aeronautics.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hvk.org/articles/0601/100.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331170834/http://www.hvk.org/articles/0601/100.html|archive-date=2012-03-31|title=Flights of fancy? (Part X of XII)|date=2001-06-24|publisher=[[The Week (Indian magazine)|The Week]]|access-date=2009-06-29}}</ref>

==Ayyavazhi==
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2017}}
Pushpak Vimana, meaning "an aeroplane with flowers", is a mythical aeroplane found in [[Ayyavazhi]] mythology. [[Akilattirattu Ammanai]], the religious book of Ayyavazhi, says that the Pushpak Vimana was sent to carry [[Ayya Vaikundar]] to Vaikundam.

A similar reference is found in regards of [[Saint Tukaram]], [[Maharashtra]], India. Lord Vishnu was so impressed by the devotion and singing of Saint Tukaram that when his time came, a Pushpak Viman (a heavenly aircraft shaped as an eagle) came to take him to heaven. Though it is believed that every other human being can go to Heaven without body, Saint Tukaram went to heaven with body (Sadeha Swarga Prapti).

==In popular culture==
Vimanas have appeared in books, films, internet and games including:
* [[Vimana (arcade game)|Vimana]] is an [[arcade game]] from [[Toaplan]] wherein the player's ship earns the name.
* In [[Noctis (video game)|Noctis]], a space exploration game, an interstellar propulsion system called the "Vimana Drive" is used.
* The psy-trance producers [[Etnica]] released 'Vimana' in 1997 with samples drawn from the film 'Roswell', which includes references to UFOs and alien life forms.
* In [[Fate/Zero]], [[Gilgamesh (Fate/stay night)|Gilgamesh]] has a vimana in his Gate of Babylon.
* In [[Fate/Grand Order]], God Arjuna is shown to use a Vimana for transportation during the 4th Lostbelt.
* In ''[[The Objective]]'', a 2008 horror-thriller movie, a [[US Special Forces]] ODA searches for vimanas in [[Afghanistan]].
* In the game [[Deep Labyrinth]], the labyrinth is referred to as Vimana by its caretakers.
* [[Michael Scott (Irish author)]] wrote [[The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel]], a fantasy series that included flying vimanas in the later books.
* In 'Magic Strikes', the third Kate Daniels series Urban Fantasy novel by [[Ilona Andrews]], the climax of the novel takes place on the Pushpaka Vimana.
* [[The Emperor's Riddles]], a 2014 Indian mystery thriller novel by Satyarth Nayak explores the Vimanas of ancient India.
* In the film [[Children Who Chase Lost Voices]] the flying arks are referred to as Shakuna Vimanas.
* In the PC game [[La-Mulana]], Vimanas are the sub boss of the Tower of The Goddess
* The TV show [[Ancient Aliens]] often theorizes that the texts were describing alien space ships.
* It was mentioned in the 2013 American found footage sci-fi horror film ''[[Skinwalker Ranch (film)|Skinwalker Ranch]]''.
* The movie [[Castle in the Sky]], from 1986, depicts a flying city named Laputa (resembling a vimana) that was created by an extinct civilization with god-like technology.
* The book [[Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)|Pearl of Great Price]], from 1851, by the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ, mentions that Enoch built a fabulous [flying] city that was "taken up to heaven" by God.
* The book [[Survive: The Atlantis Grail Book 4]], from 2020 written by Vera Nazarin, mentions the ancient Atlantean ark ship that escaped Earth in the distant past was named Vimana.
* [[Biman]] is the name of national airline of [[Bangladesh]].

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=12em}}
*[[Quimbaya artifacts]]
*[[Vaimanika Shastra]]
*[[Ratha]]
*[[Early flying machines]]
*[[Merkabah mysticism]]
*[[Vimanavatthu]]
*[[Laputa]]
*[[Aviation in India]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_7.htm#Ancient%20Indian WorldMysteries.com The Anti-Gravity Handbook (Lost Science)] by [[David Hatcher Childress]]
*[http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vimanas/vimanas.htm#menu Vymanika Shastra]
* [http://www.stephen-knapp.com/ufos_and_vimanas.htm UFOs and Vimanas]
* ''Los Vimanas'' (a collection of various texts, partially in Spanish and partially in English) http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_vimanas.htm#inicio
* [http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/vimana-aircraft-of-india-more-sloppy-scholarship-from-david-childress "Vimana Aircraft of India: More Sloppy Scholarship from David Childress"] by [[Jason Colavito]]

{{HinduMythology}}

[[Category:Objects in Hindu mythology]]
[[Category:Flying chariots]]

Vimana - Revision history

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