2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy
The 2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy refers to protests that occurred during the 102nd
Overview
In December 2014, it was announced that Anand J. Bodas and his copresenter Ameya Jadhav, who claim that aircraft more advanced than today's versions existed in ancient India, would be allowed to speak at the
Bodas, who was a principal at a pilot training school in Kerala and Jadhav, currently a lecturer at the Swami Vivekanand International School and Junior College in Mumbai,[4] cited a text called Vaimanika Prakaranam (also called Vaimānika Shāstra) as evidence. Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science studied the text in 1974, concluding that "craft is a decided impossibility” and that the Vaimānika Shāstra was written no earlier than 1904.[5] Bodas stated that modern science rejects anything that it cannot explain. He claimed that of the 500 guidelines described in the text, only 100 to 120 survive today. He attributed this loss to the passage of time, foreign rulers of India and artefacts which had been stolen from India, during that time.[3]
The five-day conference was held at the Kalina Campus of the
Criticism and protests
In late December 2014, Ram Prasad Gandhiraman, a scientist at the NASA's Ames Research Center, started a petition to prevent the paper from being presented at the conference. By 31 December, 220 scientists and academicians had signed the petition. Gandhiraman criticized the paper as pseudo-science and said that mythology should not be mixed with science.[6]
S. M. Deshpande, a professor at the
H.S. Mukunda, another professor at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, who was a co-author of the paper, criticized the organizers and said that both sides of the debate should be presented. He asked why had there been no working models made if the persons who presented the paper were convinced that they were right.[7]
Roddam Narasimha, director of National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), said that there is no credible evidence that aviation existed in ancient India. He added that the Vaimānika Shāstra text has been studied scientifically and the consensus is that descriptions in the text are unscientific.[3]
Noted Indian
Support
Gauri Mahulikar, the head of the department of
See also
References
- ^ "Ancient India Had Planes: Controversial Claim At Science Congress". NDTV. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ^ "Aeroplanes in Vedic age could fly between planets: Speaker at Indian Science Congress". India Today. 26 December 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ^ a b c d "Indian Science Congress organisers slip Vedic mythology about aviation into programme schedule". Mumbai Mirror. 26 December 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ^ a b "At Science Congress, Vedic aeroplanes and virus-proof suits". The Indian Express. 3 January 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ^ Gandhi, Divya (January 11, 2015). "An 'ancient' treatise no older than 1904". The Hindu. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
- ^ a b c "Pseudo-science must not figure in Indian Science Congress". Mumbai Mirror. 31 December 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ^ "The organisers did a disservice to science". The Telegraph (India). 12 January 2015. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
- ^ "Outlandish claims diminish respect for ancient Indian science: Narlikar". The Times of India. 14 January 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
- CNN-IBN. 6 January 2015. Archived from the originalon 1 February 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
Further reading
- Anand Bodas; Ameya Jadhav (January 2015). "Abstract: Ancient Indian Aviation Technology". Department of Sanskrit, Mumbai University. Archived from the originalon 2015-01-04. Retrieved 2015-01-25.