(Newswire.net — January 8, 2015) — For the first time in the history of the Indian Science Congress in Mumbai, Indian scientists presented scientific discoveries such as the Vedas and the Pranas, which, amongst others, describes polymers to build houses made of cactus juice, egg shells and cow dung, ancient knives so sharp they could split a hair in two, a cow bacteria that turns anything eaten by an animal into 24-carat gold, even 7,000-year-old planes that could travel to other planets.
The surprising discoveries based on ancient Hindu texts, were presented at a session on “Ancient Indian Sciences through Sanskrit.”
Ex principal of a pilot training school, retired Captain Anand Bodas, held a controversial lecture on ancient Indian aviation from Rigveda.
“The basic structure was of 60 by 60 feet, and in some cases, over 200 feet. They were jumbo planes,” Bodas said. “The ancient planes had 40 small engines. Today’s aviation does not know even of a flexible exhaust system.”
Bodas said the ancient aircraft could not only move in any direction, but travel between planets. The more than 3,000-year-old manuscript also described that ancient pilots were drinking the milk of buffalo, cow and sheep and they wore special clothes made from underwater grown vegetation.
“Now we have to import aeroplane alloys. The young generation should study the alloys mentioned in his book [Vimana Samhita by Maharishi Bharadwaj] and make them here,” Bodas said.
Not all welcomed Bodas claims, however. NASA scientist Ram Prasad Gandhiraman started an online petition, urging the Indian Science Congress to cancel Bodas’s lecture. He said that mixing mythology with science is unacceptable calling other Indian scientists to condemn Bodas claims.
“If we scientists remain passive, we are betraying not only the science, but also our children,” said the petition, which was signed by over 1,000 people. Overall, in the last couple of weeks dozens of scientists slammed the idea to give a platform to “pseudoscience.”
The organizers of the Indian Science Congress, which unites over 30,000 Indian scientists, however, believes Bodas is onto something when reviving ancient Indian Sciences described in Vedas and Pranas written on Sanscrit. Additionally, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the nation’s scientists to “explore the mysteries of science.”
“We in India are the inheritors of a thriving tradition of Indian science and technology since ancient times’ mathematics and medicine, metallurgy and mining, calculus and textiles, architecture and astronomy,” said Modi, who is a Hindu nationalist.
“The contribution of Indian civilization to human knowledge and advancement has been rich and varied,” concluded Modi, the Hindustan Times reported.