CHAPTER 22 ( ATYPICALS )

• Vymanika Shastra, known to be one of the forty chapters of the Yantra Sarvasva, is available with some study centers, while the mother work itself is mysteriously untraceable. It could be a matter of conjecture that this Encyclopedia on machines might have accompanied Vedic Sciences into Western countries.
  

• English translation of the work features six chapters while the preface talks only of three chapters. This anomaly is to be reconciled.
  

• The treatise narrates sophisticated features of flying machines. Basic features of aeroplanes such as main planes, rudder, elevator, fuselage, cockpit layout, flight controls, landing gear and related systems find sporadic mention.
  

• Ground systems to support aviation such as control tower, communication and navigation aids, runways or airstrips do not appear in the text.
  

• Even though both Vymanika shastra and Samarangana sootradhara describe flying machines, strangely both the treatises make no reference to each other.
  

• Out of four vimanas mentioned in the work, Tripura vimana does not find place in the list of Vimanas prescribed for the current Yuga. Similarly, Soubha vimana referred to several times in Mahabharata does not appear in the list of 56 vimanas of Dwapara Yuga.
  

• The last few sections of the closing chapter dealing with four types of representative vimanas lack clarity. It looks as though a need was felt by the author to short-close the work in a hurry. Customary manner of conclusion and closing frills are conspicuous by their absence.