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experiment of rendering a Sanskrit text by Maharishi Bharadvaya, a seer of an early period, in a way suited to our modern way of thinking. The result that lay before me in black and white was so astounding that during my journey to India in the autumn of 1968 I had the accuracy of the translation checked both in Mysore and at the central College of Bangalore. This is now the modern translation of an ancient Sanskrit text reads: 6. 'An apparatus that moves by inner strength like a bird, whether on earth, in the water or in the air, is called Vimana... 9. ... country to country, world to world ... 10. ... is called a Vimana by the priests of the sciences... 11. ... The secret of building flying machines... machines ...' Later on in the text the thirty-one main pieces of which the machine consists are accurately described. It also enumerates sixteen kinds of metal that are needed to construct the flying vehicle, but only three of them are known to us today. All the others have remained untranslatable to date. A curiosity that leaves me no rest has always drawn me to the old Indian source books. What a mass of fascinating and mysterious information about flying machines and fantastic weapons in the remote past can be found in the translations of the Indian Vedas and epics. The Old Testament with its vigorous, vivid descriptions pales beside these Indian jewels. 8. ... which can move in the sky from place to place ... 12. ... that do not break, cannot be divided, do not catch fire ... 13. ... and cannot be destroyed ... 14. ... The secret of making flying machines stand still. 15. ... The secret of making flying machines invisible. 16. ... The secret of overhearing noises and conversations in enemy flying machines. 17. ... the secret of taking pictures of the interiors of enemy flying machines. 18. ... The secret of ascertaining the course of enemy flying machines. 19. ... The secret of making beings in enemy flying machines unconscious and destroying enemy The experiment that was made in Mysore with this text, the age of which is still unknown, should be set up as an example of what old texts can express in modern translation. My curiosity about the original sources became even greater owing to a purely chance encounter.