Shivkar Talpade born in 1864 was the first person ever to execute the idea of an unmanned aeroplane in 1895. This was 8 years prior to the claim of the Wright brothers, that they were the first ones globally to fly a plane. Shivkar Bapuji Talpade (1864-1916) studied Sanskrit literature and the Vedas. He was born in Bombay. He belonged to the Pathara Prabhu community. The people from the Pathara Prabhu community were settled in Bombay from the very beginning.
Chiranjilal Verma was Talpade’s teacher and his inspiration to read and study Swami Dayanand Sarawati’s works related to ancient aeronautics. Verma was Talpade’s teacher at Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art. Verma led Talpade to Swami Dayanand Sarawati’s works such as ‘Rig Vedadic Bhashya Bhumika’ and ‘Rigved and Yajurveda Bhasya’. Talpade’s work was based on the work done by Maharishi Bharat in Rigveda. Talpade was inspired by these ancient vehicle scriptures. He started learning the Vedic Sanskrit language and decided to construct the Vedic Vimana described in the Vedas.Talpade also studied the works of westerners like Thomas Alva Edison. Edison flew a balloon and it was one of the initial achievements in the field of aviation. Talpade had all the information and the motivation required to fly. He built a plane that could strike the Eagle pose.
Talpade names his plane Marutsakha. Marutsakha means the friend of wind. Not a lot of people knew when Talpade came up with the invention.Marutsakha is known to be inspired from Vimana, ancient flying machines in Hindu scriptures.KRN Swamyhad written about the audience that fortunately got to witness Marutsakha take off, fly to a height of 1500 feet and then fall down.
surjitt sahani
