Ancient Texts
India: Ancient texts
Ancient Texts pages that draw on India, each with the sources shown. Start with Brahmashira, Kakudmi and Revati, Kali Yuga, Manu and Matsya (the fish).
Objects · IndiaBrahmashiraOnce fired, this weapon in the Mahabharata cannot be recalled, and it was turned against the unborn. When two heroes launch theirs at each other, sages step between them, warning that the clash would destroy the world; only one can call his back, and the one who cannot is cursed to live three thousand years. Who gets the curse?People · IndiaKakudmi and RevatiA king and his daughter visit the creator god, wait politely through one musical performance, and return to find twenty-seven cycles of four ages have passed on earth. Scholars explain it through Puranic cosmology and note similar tales in Irish and Japanese folklore. What does a man find when his whole world is gone?Events · IndiaKali YugaThe present age in Hindu tradition lasts 432,000 years, which matches exactly the 432,000 years the Babylonian priest Berossus gave to the kings before the Flood. By tradition it began in 3102 BCE, the year Krishna left the earth; historians suggest a shared base-60 number, not a link. What else could explain it?Events · IndiaManu and Matsya (the fish)In the oldest Indian flood story, humanity's savior is a fish small enough to fit in a man's cupped hands. Manu raises it in a jar, then a trench, then the sea, and when the waters rise he ties his ship's rope to its horn; scholars debate whether the tale was borrowed from Mesopotamia. Where does the fish tow him?Objects · IndiaPushpaka VimanaOn the flight home, Rama gives Sita an aerial tour of their own adventure, naming each place they fly over. The Ramayana's Pushpaka is a flying palace-car built by the gods' architect, stolen from the god of wealth by Ravana, and able to go wherever its owner wishes. Who steers it, and where does it land?Texts · IndiaSamarangana SutradharaA real 11th-century Sanskrit manual on architecture describes a large flying bird of light wood, powered by heated mercury, then explains that it is leaving out the key step on purpose. Historians say heated mercury cannot provide lift; the rest of the book covers towns, temples and painting. What is it not telling us?Objects · IndiaSaubha, the flying cityKing Salva's flying city in the Mahabharata is said to appear in the sky, on the ground and on the water, sometimes within the same battle, raining weapons on Krishna's city. Krishna's arrows seem to do nothing; scholars see an epic sky-fortress, not a memory of technology. What finally breaks it?Texts · India (20th century)Vaimanika ShastraIts author said the whole text came to him through psychic contact with a sage who lived thousands of years earlier, yet it was dictated in the 1910s and 20s, the era of World War I aviation. Presented as an ancient science of aircraft, it was tested by engineers in 1974. What did they find?
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