Rishi Bhardwaj built the first plane, flew over Chowpatty: UP Governor | India News – Times of India

LUCKNOW: The first human flight was performed not by the Wright brothers, but by the Vedic sage Bharadwaj, who built an airplane and flew it for a kilometer at Chowpatty in Bombay. Pushpak Viman from Ramayana was an advanced invention that was 5000 years old; and Kumbhakarna was a ‘technocrat’ who created secret weapons.
UP Governor Anandiben Patel on Monday highlighted her views on the underappreciated legacy of ancient Indian technological advancements at the ninth convocation ceremony of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University in Lucknow. “People came from abroad, adopted our technologies and ideas, studied and invented many things. We should read and know about our inventions,” Patel said.
She commented on Rishi Bharadwaj‘s flight while referring to the flying machine of the mythological demon king Ravan. “Not many people know that Goddess Sita was brought to Lanka by Ravan in Pushpak Viman. This invention is 5000 years old, but do we know who created Pushpak Viman, where and when?” she asked.
However, her claim is at odds with a paper presented at the Indian Science Congress in 2015 that claimed Shivkar Bapuji Talpade flew a flying machine over Chowpatty in Bombay in 1895. This was eight years before Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their plane into North Carolina on December 17, 1903.
Patel also shared her interpretation of Kumbhakarna, labeling him as a technocrat instead of the lazy figure portrayed in popular culture. “To ensure that no other country would steal his technology, he secretly created weapons,” the governor said.