DISCOVERY 



185 



water carried by rain-clouds, the serpent being the 

 symbol of water in America as elsewhere. 



These remarks must not be taken as applpng to 

 the later and more complicated developments of the 

 gods to which the\' have reference, but to their earliest 

 forms alone. 



Aerial Warfare in Ancient 

 India 



By Ikbal Ali Shah, M.R.A.S., F.R.G.S. 



In the ancient Utcrature of the East, we come across 

 many allusions to the fact that the science of aviation 

 was conceived in India as early as 500 B.C. In the 

 car\-ed rocks of the Southern Indian caves is held the 

 key to this secret art of pre-Brahmanic age, just as 

 the P\Tamids of Eg^'pt and the Topes of Kashghar 

 are the respositories of an artistn,' more than half 

 forgotten. The figures incised in the caves of EDora 

 do not give us any satisfactory account of ancient 

 Hindu aerial machines — their plan of construction 

 or what they could do — but those images lend colour 

 j to the statements made in the traditional books 

 I of the Brahmans regarding the use of " flying car- 

 r Litres " in the earliest period of Indian history. 



These references are encountered notably in the 



::;ayana and Mahabharatta. These works are by 



means confined to one period of time, but, like most 



red books, the\' consist of materials of different 



(' iis, illustrating the progress of the social and 



'ious evolution of the Brahmans. The great 



lu epics were written to celebrate the exploits 



ings and the conflicts of an internecine war. Refer- 



'5 to flying during that period are verj' clearly 



.. viieatcd in the Ramayana. In this stirring poem, 



wliich was compiled about the year 500 B.C., we learn 



that Rawun, a King of Ce^'lon, used to flj' over 



i his opponents' armies and not infrequently caused 



! them severe loss. 



The writer of that book mentions, further, that after 

 a fierce struggle between the Brahmans and the King 

 ;of Ceylon, in which Rawun was defeated and slain, 

 jhis wonderful " flj-ing carriage" fell into the hands 

 of Ramchander, the Hindu chief, who fkw in it from 

 ( ' ylon to his capital at Ajudhia, in Northern India. 

 Apart from the notices of flpng in the semi-religious 

 :ature of India, we find that the historical poets 

 ot those distant times also celebrated the subject. 

 The greatest of the ancient Hindu poets, Kali Das, 

 tiecits of the aerial journey of Ramchander in a heroic 



[Continued on p. z&6 



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