The Vaimānika Śāstra (वैमानिक शास्त्र) is a highly detailed description of vimānas, and it is given great credence in a number of books and articles. The Indian ufologist Kanishk Nathan wrote that the Vaimānika Śāstra is an ancient Sanskrit text that "describes a technology that is not only far beyond the science of the times but is even way beyond the possible conceptual scientific imagination of an ancient Indian, including concepts such as solar energy and photography."
It is indeed true that this book contains many interesting ideas about aerial technology. But it is important to note that it was written in the early 20th century by a psychic process similar to channeling or automatic writing.
The story behind this is briefly presented in the introduction to G. R. Josyer's translation of the Vaimānika Śāstra. There Josyer explained that the knowledge in India used to be transmitted orally, but as this tradition died out, writing on palm leaves was used. Unfortunately, palm leaf manuscripts do not last very long in the Indian climate, and large volumes of old written material have been lost due to not being regularly recopied.
Josyer went on to say that the lost texts "remain embedded in the ether of the sky, to be revealed--like television--to gifted mediums of occult perception." The medium in this case was Subbaraya Sastry, a "walking lexicon gifted with occult perception," who began to dictate the Vaimānika Śāstra to Mr. Venkatachala Sarma on August 1, 1918. The complete work was taken down in 23 exercise books up to August 23, 1923. In 1923, Subbaraya Sastry also had a draftsman prepare some drawings of the vimānas according to his instructions.
According to Subbaraya Sastry, the Vaimānika Shāstra is a section of a vaste treatise by the sage Mahārishi Bhardvāja entitled Yantra-sarvasva or the Encyclopedia of Machines. Mahārishi Bhardvāja is an ancient rishi mentioned in the Mahabharata and other Vedic works, but I do not know of any reference indicating that he was concerned with machines. The Yantra-sarvasva is no longer extant in physical form, but it is said to be existing in the aksashic record, where it was read and recited by Subbaraya Sastry. As far as I am aware, there are no references to this work in existing literature. This is discussed in Kanjilal's book on vimānas.
Additional information about Subbaray Sastry has been supplied by C.S.R. Prabhu, a technical director and project co-ordinator at the National Informics Center in Hyderabad, India. Prabhu traces Sastry's story back to 1875, when he was a young man of 20 living near the city of Bangalore in South India. Sastry had been abandoned to die of smallpox during a severe smallpox epidemic and had wandered into a forest region. He was about to commit suicide by drowning himself in a lake when he was saved by a yogi from the Himalayas named Bhāskarānanda. The yogi reportedly cured him of smallpox and kept him in his cave in the forest for about one year.
The yogi is said to have asked Sastry, "What do you want in this life?" Sastry replied that he wanted to be renowned as a expert in śāstras (Sanskrit texts), and he specifically mentioned physical śāstras, since the standard religious śāstras are known by many people. The yogī granted his wish by transmitting to Sastry in an unknown way the texts of some 20 different śāstras. According to Prabhu, Sastry had been quite ordinary before meeting Bhāskarānanda.
After returning to the cave, Sastry was able to go into a trance state by closing his eyes and performing certain yogic mudrās. In that state he would recite elaborate Sanskrit texts on religion, science, or politics continuously, without pausing to think. One of these texts was the Vaimānika Śāstra.
Although the Vaimānika Śāstra could be a hoax, I have no reason to suppose that it was not dictated to Subbaraya Sastry in the manner desribed by Josyer and C.S.R. Prabhu. But is the work authentic? Even if it was existing as a vibrational pattern in the ether, during the process of psychic transmission and dictation it might have been distorted or adulterated by material from the unconscious mind of the medium.
There are good reasons for thinking this might be so, and there are also good reasons for thinking that the text might contain authentic material. I will first give the evidence suggesting that the text of the Vaimānika Śāstra may have been adulterated by modern material.
The text is illustrated by several of the drawings made under Subbaraya Sastry's supervision. These include cross sections of the rukma-vimāna, the tripura-vimāna, and the śakuna-vimāna. These cross sections show the kind of crude mechanical and electrical technology that existed in the period just following World War 1. There are large electromagnets, cranks, shafts, worm gears, pistons, heating coils, and electric motors turning propellers. The rukma-vimāna is supposedly lifted into the air by "lifting fans" that are powered by electric motors and that are very small compared to the size of the vimāna as a whole. It definitely does not look as though it could fly.
These mechanical devices may well have been inspired by the technology of the early 20th century. However, C.S.R. Prabhu has reported on research showing that the text of the Vaimānika Śāstra contains technological information that Subbaraya Sastry is not likely to have acquired through ordinary means of communication. This information consists of formulas for a number of metal alloys, ceramics, and glasses that are used in the construction of vimānas.
The formulas are expressed in obscure Sanskrit words, many of which cannot be found in standard Sanskrit dictionaries. Prabhu found through extensive research that some of these words can be found in rare dictionaries of Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine and chemistry. Through extensive consultation with Ayurvedic physicians and chemists, he was able to identify the actual substances referred to by some of these words. It was then possible to synthesize some of the materials mentioned in the Vaimānika Śāstra in the laboratory, using the instructions for mixing, heating, and cooling given in the text.
The results were remarkable. Several materials were synthesized, such as tamogarbha loha, a lead alloy, arāra tamra, a copper alloy, and ravi śakti apakarṣana darpana, a glass. These materials turned out to have useful properties matching the description given in the text of the Vaimānika Śāstra. For example, the text said that tamogarbha loha was a light absorbing material, and laboratory tests showed that the synthesized tamogarbha loha displayed high level absorption of laser light. The synthesized materials were found to have unique properties that are new and patentable.
The formulas in the Vaimānika Śāstra seem to represent a science of chemistry and metallurgy that is expressed in archaic language. From what we know of the light of Subbaraya Sastry, it seems unlikely that he could have generated such formulas from readily available modern information. Perhaps these formulas do come from an ancient source.
Due to the presence of many untranslatable Sanskrit words, the Vaimānika Śāstra is not very intelligible. Nonetheless, this text does contain information about vimānas showing interesting parallels with the observed features of UFOs. To illustrate this, here are ten examples taken from a list in the Vaimānika Śāstra of 32 secrets that a vimāna pilot should know. I will comment on relations between these items and common features of the UFO phenomenon.

1. Goodha: As explained in "Vaayutatva-Prakarana," by harnessing the powers, Yaasaa, Viyaasaa, Prayaasaa in the 8th atmospheric layer covering the earth, to attract the dark content on the solar ray, and use it to hide the Vimaana from the enemy.

2. Drishya: By collision of the electric power and wind power in the atmosphere, a glow is created, whose reflection is to be caught in the Vishwa-Kriyaa-Darapana mirror at the front of the Vimana, and by its manipulation produce a Maaya-Vimaana or camouflaged Vimana.

3. Adrishya: According to "Shaktitantra," by means of the Vynarathya Vikarana and other powers in the heart centre of the solar mass, attract the force of the ethereal flow in the sky, and mingle it with the balaahaa-vikarana shakti in the aerial globe, producing thereby a white cover, which will make the Vimana invisible.

Here three methods are described for hiding a vimāna from the enemy. They sound fanciful, but it is interesting to note that the vimānas described in the Purānas and the Mahābhārata have the ability to become invisible. This is also a characteristic feature of UFOs, but this was certainly not well known in 1923.
The idea that a glow is created by the collision of electrical power and the wind is interesting. UFOs are well known for glowing in the dark, and this may be due to an electrical effect that ionizes the air surrounding the UFO. The word "shakti" (śakti) means power or energy.

4. Paroksha: According to "Meghotpatthi-prakarana," or the sciences of the birth of clouds, be entering the second of the summer cloud layers, and attracting the power therein with the shaktyaakarshana darpana or force-attraction mirror in the Vimana, and applying it to the parivesha or halo of the Vimana, a paralyzing force is generated, and opposing Vimanas are paralyzed and put out of action.

5. Aparoksha: According to "Shakti-tantra," by projection of the Rohinee beam of light, things in front of the Vimana are made visible.

Beams of paralyzing force are often mentioned in the UFO accounts, as well as beams of light. The mention of a halo around the vimāna may be significant, since UFOs are often said to be surrounded by some kind of energy field.

6. Viroopa Karena: As stated in "Dhooma Prakarana," by producing the 32nd kind of smoke through the mechanism, and charging it with the light of the heat waves in the sky, and projecting it through the padmaka chakra tube to the bhyravee oil-smeared Vyroopya-darpana at the top of the Vimana, and whirling with 132nd type of speed, a very fierce and terrifying shape of the Vimana will emerge, causing utter fright to onlookers.

7. Roopaantara: As stated in "Tylaprakarana," by preparing griddhrajihwaa, kumbhinee, and kaakajangha oils and anointing the distorting mirror in the Vimana with them, applying it to the 19th kind of smoke and charging with the kuntinee shakti in the Vimana, shapes like lion, tiger, rhinoceros, serpent, mountain, river will appear and amaze observers and confuse them.

Although these descriptions seem completely wild, it is interesting that UFOs have been known to change shape in mysterious ways, and monstrous creatures have been known to emerge from landed UFOs and frighten people. Many of the items in this list of secrets have to do with creating illusions that bewilder enemies, and it seems that UFOs also create such illusions.

8. Saarpa-Gamana: By attracting the dandavaktra and other seven forces of air, and joining with solar rays, passing through the zig-zagging centre of the Vimana, and turning the switch, the Vimana will have a zig-zagging motion like a serpent.

The ability of UFOs to fly in a zig-zag fashion is well known today, but it wasn't widely known in 1923.

9. Roopaakarshana: By means of the photographic yantra in the Vimana to obtain a television view of things inside an enemy plane.

10. Kriyaagrahanaa: By turning the key at the bottom of the Vimana, a white cloth is made to appear. By electrifying the three acids in the noth-east part of the Vimana, and subjecting them to the 7 kinds of solar rays, and passing the resultant force into the tube of the Thrisheersha mirror... all activities going on down below on the ground, will be projected in the screen.

The word "television" in item (9) was employed in the English translation of Vaimānika Śāstra that came out in 1973. The original Sanskrit text was written in 1923 before television was developed.
It turns out that there are many references to TV-like screens inside UFOs. For example, they show up in the following abduction cases described in this book: the Buff Ledge, Vermont, case, the case of Filiberto Cardenas, the case of William Herrmann, and the Cimarron, New Mexico, case. William Herrmann, in particular, said he was shown a screen on board a UFO that would produce close-up views of objects at ground level. With it he got a clear view of the astonished faces of onlookers who were watching the UFO from the ground.
All in all, the descriptions in the Vaimānika Śāstra seem luridly fantastic. But there are many parallels between these descriptions and equally strange-sounding features of UFO accounts. I do not know if these parallels are significant, but it is curious that they should be there in a book written down between 1918 and 1923, before UFO phenomena was widely known.
It seems clear that the illustrations in the Vaimānika Śāstra are contaminated by twentieth century material from the medium's unconscious mind. Yet the passages I have just quoted mainly contain non-twentieth-century material, and this is expressed in terms of Vedic words and ideas. It may be largely a product of Subbaraya Sastry's imagination as applied to his extensive Vedic knowledge, or it may be a reasonably faithful rendition of an ancient Vedic text preserved as an etheric pattern.
The only way to find out about this is to obtain other obscure Sanskrit texts and see wether or not they confirm some of the material in the Vaimānika Śāstra. Repeated confirmations would at least indicate that Subbaraya Sastry was presenting material from a genuine tradition, and further investigations would be needed to see whether or not that tradtition had a basis in actual fact. The discovery of genuine metallurgical formulas in the Vaimānika Śāstra is certainly a step in this direction.


Vaimanika Shastra