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{{Short description|Indian aviation | {{Short description|Indian aviation enthusiast}} | ||
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}} | {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}} | ||
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2016}} | {{Use Indian English|date=January 2016}} | ||
'''Shivkar Bāpuji Talpade''' ({{audio|Shivkar Bapuji Talpade pronunciation.ogg|pronunciation}}) was an Indian instructor with an interest in [[Sanskrit]] and aviation. He lived in [[Mumbai]], and is claimed to have constructed and flown an [[Unmanned aerial vehicle|unmanned]], [[Aircraft#Heavier than air|heavier-than-air aircraft]] in 1895. Contemporary accounts of a successful flight do not exist, and no reliable historical records document its existence.<ref name="Ganesan" /><ref name="Deb" /><ref name="Doniger2023"/> [[Hindutva pseudohistory#Examples|Pseudo-historical narratives about Talpade]] proliferated in India in the early 2000s among adherents of the [[Hindutva|Hindu-nationalist]] [[right-wing]]. These included the false claim that Talpade had "invented the modern aircraft".<ref name=PseudoScience/><ref name="Deb" /><ref name="Ganesan" /><ref name="Doniger2023"/> | |||
Talpade was | |||
== Talpade's aircraft == | == Talpade's aircraft == | ||
Talpade is | Talpade is claimed to have constructed an [[Unmanned aerial vehicle|unmanned]], [[Aircraft#Heavier than air|heavier-than-air]] aircraft, named ''Marutsakhā'' ("friend of the air"), and flown it above Bombay's [[Chowpatty Beach]] in 1895.<ref name="Ganesan" /><ref name="Deb" /> Contemporary accounts of a successful flight do not exist, and no reliable historical records document its existence.<ref name="Ganesan" /><ref name="Deb" /><ref name="Doniger2023">{{cite encyclopedia| editor-last1=Mazur | editor-first1=E.M. | editor-last2=Taylor | editor-first2=S.M.F. | last=Doniger| first = Wendy | title= The Myth of Ancient Indian Airplanes | encyclopedia = Religion and Outer Space | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2023 | isbn=978-1-000-90469-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TBi-EAAAQBAJ| pages=25–33}}</ref> | ||
Talpade's aircraft was reputed to have flown to a height of {{convert|1500|ft|m}}, a | Talpade's aircraft was reputed to have flown to a height of {{convert|1500|ft|m}}. Pratap Velkar, a local architect who has researched Talpade's life and written a book about him, denies this, stating that it rose to a small height before crashing.<ref name="Bhutia" /> The aircraft has been described as a cylinder of [[bamboo]], with claims it used [[Mercury (element)|mercury]] or urine as a fuel.<ref name="Bhutia" /> Some of Talpade's drawings were said to have been sent to [[Hindustan Aeronautics]] (HAL), but Anuradha Reddy, a historian of aviation, was unable to trace them.<ref name="Ganesan" /> The aircraft itself has been described as being sold to [[Rallis Brothers]], or to HAL.<ref name="Bhutia" /> Some accounts of the event stated that the flight was watched by [[Sayajirao Gaekwad III]], then the [[Maharaja of Baroda]], but direct evidence for this is scant. Velkar states that no royals attended, as it was not well-publicized.<ref name="Ganesan" /> | ||
Some versions of the story say that Talpade had advice from Subbaraya Shastry (1866 - 1940), who later wrote ''[[Vaimānika Shāstra]]'' ("Science of Aeronautics"), a text that is frequently associated with descriptions of aircraft in the [[Vedas]].<ref name="Ganesan" /><ref name="Bhutia" /> Shastry claimed the text was delivered to him psychically and was thousands of years old.<ref name="Doniger2023"/> A 1974 paper by scientists from the [[Indian Institute of Science]] declared that the designs in the ''Vaimānika Shāstra'' itself were technologically unfeasible,<ref name="Mukunda 1974 5–12" /><ref name="Deb" /> stating that the text showed a "complete lack of understanding of the dynamics of the flight of heavier-than-air craft". The study also stated that elements of the text were "entirely modern", and that it was definitively not vedic in origin.<ref name="Doniger2023"/> Shastry himself in his autobiography states that Talpade attempted to construct models of aircraft under Shastry's guidance but was unsuccessful in making any of them fly.<ref name="Mukunda 1974 5–12" /> | |||
==Cultural legacy== | ==Cultural legacy== | ||
Narratives about the event proliferated in the early 2000s among adherents of the nationalist [[right-wing]].<ref name="Deb" /> The absence of evidence of its construction is attributed to censorship by the [[British Raj]].<ref name="Deb" /> Talpade developed a reputation as the "first man to fly an aircraft", given that his achievement was supposed to have taken place eight years before the [[Wright Brothers]] flew their plane in 1903.<ref name="Ganesan" /> | Narratives about the event proliferated in the early 2000s among adherents of the nationalist [[right-wing]].<ref name="Deb" /> The absence of evidence of its construction is attributed to censorship by the [[British Raj]].<ref name="Deb" /> Talpade developed a reputation as the "first man to fly an aircraft", given that his achievement was supposed to have taken place eight years before the [[Wright Brothers]] flew their plane in 1903.<ref name="Ganesan" /> The aircraft attributed to Talpade was unmanned: unmanned aircraft were already in existence at that time, and were flown successfully decades before Talpade's birth. The first such flight was by English engineer [[John Stringfellow]], whose craft flew about thirty yards in 1848.<ref name="Ganesan" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.flyingmachines.org/strng.html|title = FLYING MACHINES - John Stringfellow}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zrpb67qFXUIC&pg=PT63&dq=1857+Temple+flight&lr=&sig=ATn3GzC4AWgNah5AWjodngzkSeUoV8gL9F ''First to Fly'' By Thomas C Parramore, p.46]</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1591057.stm|title = High hopes for replica plane|date = 10 October 2001}}</ref> | ||
A film based on life of Talpade, ''[[Hawaizaada]]'', starring [[Ayushmann Khurrana]], was released on 30 January 2015. The government of [[Uttar Pradesh]] exempt the film from taxes in that state.<ref name=TOI/> The film states that Talpade had accomplished in 1895 what the Wright Brothers did in 1903.<ref name="Deb" /> The [[Hindi]] News channel [[Zee News]] aired a piece titled "''Wright brothers wrong {{notatypo|thhe}}''" (the Wright brothers were wrong).<ref name="Ganesan" /><ref name="Deb" /> The segment claimed that Talpade's craft was the first modern aircraft in the world, and that it was the first [[Drone (aircraft)|drone]].<ref name="Deb" /> Also in 2015, a [[2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy|controversial paper presented at the Indian Science Congress]] claimed that Talpade had "invented the modern aircraft".<ref name="Ganesan" /><ref name="Deb" /> Ram Prasad Gandhiraman, a scientist working for [[NASA]], described the paper as [[pseudoscience]].<ref name=PseudoScience>{{cite news|title=Pseudo-science must not figure in Indian Science Congress|url=http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/cover-story/Pseudo-science-must-not-figure-in-Indian-Science-Congress/articleshow/45698353.cms|access-date=25 January 2015|work=[[Mumbai Mirror]]|date=31 December 2014}}</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
*[[Claims to the first powered flight]] | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
<references> | |||
<ref name="Ganesan">{{cite news |last1=Ganesan |first1=Ranjita |title=The aviator? |url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/the-aviator-115010901145_1.html |access-date=26 August 2020 |work=Business Standard India |date=10 January 2015}}</ref> | <ref name="Ganesan">{{cite news |last1=Ganesan |first1=Ranjita |title=The aviator? |url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/the-aviator-115010901145_1.html |access-date=26 August 2020 |work=Business Standard India |date=10 January 2015}}</ref> | ||
<ref name="Bhutia">{{cite magazine |author=Lhendup G Bhutia |url=http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/india/the-myth-of-the-indian-aviator |title=The Myth of the Indian Aviator |date=2015-01-30 |publisher= | <ref name="Bhutia">{{cite magazine |author=Lhendup G Bhutia |url=http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/india/the-myth-of-the-indian-aviator |magazine=OPEN Magazine |title=The Myth of the Indian Aviator |date=2015-01-30 |publisher=Open Media Network Pvt. Ltd. |quote=Talpade is believed to have been born in 1864 in the Pathare Prabhu community in a South Mumbai home}}</ref> | ||
<ref name="Mukunda 1974 5–12">{{cite journal |author=H.S. Mukunda |author2=S.M. Deshpande |author3=H.R. Nagendra |author4=A. Prabhu |author5=S.P. Govindraju |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> | <ref name="Mukunda 1974 5–12">{{cite journal |author=H.S. Mukunda |author2=S.M. Deshpande |author3=H.R. Nagendra |author4=A. Prabhu |author5=S.P. Govindraju |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 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122104051/http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in/site/Portals/0/Publications/ReferedJournal/ACriticalStudyOfTheWorkVaimanikaShastra.pdf |archive-date=22 November 2022 }}</ref> | ||
<ref name=TOI>{{cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Hawaizaada-declared-tax-free-in-Uttar-Pradesh/articleshow/46050475.cms|title=Hawaizaada declared tax free in Uttar Pradesh|work=The Times of India|date=29 January 2015|access-date=21 January 2020}}</ref> | <ref name=TOI>{{cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Hawaizaada-declared-tax-free-in-Uttar-Pradesh/articleshow/46050475.cms|title=Hawaizaada declared tax free in Uttar Pradesh|work=The Times of India|date=29 January 2015|access-date=21 January 2020}}</ref> | ||
<ref name="Deb">{{cite | <ref name="Deb">{{cite magazine |last1=Deb |first1=Siddhartha |title=Those Mythological Men and Their Sacred, Supersonic Flying Temples |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/121792/those-mythological-men-and-their-sacred-supersonic-flying-temples |access-date=26 August 2020 |magazine=The New Republic |date=15 May 2015}}</ref> | ||
</references> | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Talpade, Shivkar Bapuji}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Talpade, Shivkar Bapuji}} | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:19th-century Indian people]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:History of Mumbai]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:1895 in British India]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Pseudoscience]] | ||
[[Category:History of Vadodara]] | |||
[[Category:Discovery and invention controversies]] | |||
[[Category:Religious controversies in India]] | |||
[[Category:Pseudohistory]] | |||
[[Category:Historical revisionism]] | |||
[[Category:Hindutva]] | |||
[[Category:Fake news in India]] | |||
[[Category:Propaganda in India]] | |||
Latest revision as of 16:42, 18 March 2026
Shivkar Bāpuji Talpade (
pronunciation (help·info)) was an Indian instructor with an interest in Sanskrit and aviation. He lived in Mumbai, and is claimed to have constructed and flown an unmanned, heavier-than-air aircraft in 1895. Contemporary accounts of a successful flight do not exist, and no reliable historical records document its existence.[1][2][3] Pseudo-historical narratives about Talpade proliferated in India in the early 2000s among adherents of the Hindu-nationalist right-wing. These included the false claim that Talpade had "invented the modern aircraft".[4][2][1][3]
Talpade's aircraft[edit | edit source]
Talpade is claimed to have constructed an unmanned, heavier-than-air aircraft, named Marutsakhā ("friend of the air"), and flown it above Bombay's Chowpatty Beach in 1895.[1][2] Contemporary accounts of a successful flight do not exist, and no reliable historical records document its existence.[1][2][3]
Talpade's aircraft was reputed to have flown to a height of 1,500 feet (460 m). Pratap Velkar, a local architect who has researched Talpade's life and written a book about him, denies this, stating that it rose to a small height before crashing.[5] The aircraft has been described as a cylinder of bamboo, with claims it used mercury or urine as a fuel.[5] Some of Talpade's drawings were said to have been sent to Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), but Anuradha Reddy, a historian of aviation, was unable to trace them.[1] The aircraft itself has been described as being sold to Rallis Brothers, or to HAL.[5] Some accounts of the event stated that the flight was watched by Sayajirao Gaekwad III, then the Maharaja of Baroda, but direct evidence for this is scant. Velkar states that no royals attended, as it was not well-publicized.[1]
Some versions of the story say that Talpade had advice from Subbaraya Shastry (1866 - 1940), who later wrote Vaimānika Shāstra ("Science of Aeronautics"), a text that is frequently associated with descriptions of aircraft in the Vedas.[1][5] Shastry claimed the text was delivered to him psychically and was thousands of years old.[3] A 1974 paper by scientists from the Indian Institute of Science declared that the designs in the Vaimānika Shāstra itself were technologically unfeasible,[6][2] stating that the text showed a "complete lack of understanding of the dynamics of the flight of heavier-than-air craft". The study also stated that elements of the text were "entirely modern", and that it was definitively not vedic in origin.[3] Shastry himself in his autobiography states that Talpade attempted to construct models of aircraft under Shastry's guidance but was unsuccessful in making any of them fly.[6]
Cultural legacy[edit | edit source]
Narratives about the event proliferated in the early 2000s among adherents of the nationalist right-wing.[2] The absence of evidence of its construction is attributed to censorship by the British Raj.[2] Talpade developed a reputation as the "first man to fly an aircraft", given that his achievement was supposed to have taken place eight years before the Wright Brothers flew their plane in 1903.[1] The aircraft attributed to Talpade was unmanned: unmanned aircraft were already in existence at that time, and were flown successfully decades before Talpade's birth. The first such flight was by English engineer John Stringfellow, whose craft flew about thirty yards in 1848.[1][7][8][9]
A film based on life of Talpade, Hawaizaada, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, was released on 30 January 2015. The government of Uttar Pradesh exempt the film from taxes in that state.[10] The film states that Talpade had accomplished in 1895 what the Wright Brothers did in 1903.[2] The Hindi News channel Zee News aired a piece titled "Wright brothers wrong thhe" (the Wright brothers were wrong).[1][2] The segment claimed that Talpade's craft was the first modern aircraft in the world, and that it was the first drone.[2] Also in 2015, a controversial paper presented at the Indian Science Congress claimed that Talpade had "invented the modern aircraft".[1][2] Ram Prasad Gandhiraman, a scientist working for NASA, described the paper as pseudoscience.[4]
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Ganesan, Ranjita (10 January 2015). "The aviator?". Business Standard India. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Deb, Siddhartha (15 May 2015). "Those Mythological Men and Their Sacred, Supersonic Flying Temples". The New Republic. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Doniger, Wendy (2023). "The Myth of Ancient Indian Airplanes". In Mazur, E.M.; Taylor, S.M.F. (eds.). Religion and Outer Space. Taylor & Francis. pp. 25–33. ISBN 978-1-000-90469-7.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Pseudo-science must not figure in Indian Science Congress". Mumbai Mirror. 31 December 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Lhendup G Bhutia (30 January 2015). "The Myth of the Indian Aviator". OPEN Magazine. Open Media Network Pvt. Ltd.
Talpade is believed to have been born in 1864 in the Pathare Prabhu community in a South Mumbai home
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 H.S. Mukunda; S.M. Deshpande; H.R. Nagendra; A. Prabhu; S.P. Govindraju (1974). "A critical study of the work "Vyamanika Shastra"" (PDF). Scientific Opinion: 5–12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
- ↑ "FLYING MACHINES - John Stringfellow".
- ↑ First to Fly By Thomas C Parramore, p.46
- ↑ "High hopes for replica plane". 10 October 2001.
- ↑ "Hawaizaada declared tax free in Uttar Pradesh". The Times of India. 29 January 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2020.