Rishi Bhardwaj built 1st plane, flew over Chowpatty: UP governor

LUCKNOW: The first human flight was not achieved by Wright brothers, but by Vedic sage Bharadwaj who built and flew an airplane for 1km in Bombay's Chowpatty. Pushpak Viman from Ramayana was an advanced invention that dated back 5,000 years; 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 during the ninth convocation ceremony of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University in Lucknow. "People came from abroad, took our technologies and ideas, studied, and invented many things. We should read and have the knowledge of our inventions," Patel said.

She commented on Rishi Bharadwaj 's flight while referencing the flying machine of mythological demon king Ravan. "Not many know that goddess Sita was taken by Ravan to Lanka in Pushpak Viman. This invention is 5,000 years old, but do we know who made Pushpak Viman, where and when?" she asked.

However, her claim is at odds with a paper presented at Indian Science Congress in 2015 that claimed Shivkar Bapuji Talpade flew a flying machine in 1895 over Chowpatty in Bombay. This was eight years before Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their airplane on December 17, 1903, in North Carolina.

Patel also shared her interpretation Kumbhakarna, labelling him a technocrat rather than the slothful figure portrayed in popular culture. "In order to ensure that no other country stole his technology, he used to make weapons secretly," the governor said.