Message #39434

[Bianca]

Atomic War in Ancient India





These verses are from the Mahabharata (written in ancient Dravidian, then later in Sanskrit) and describe horrific wars fought long before the recorder's lifetime.

Various omens appeared among the gods: winds blew, meteors fell in thousands, thunder rolled through a cloudless sky.


There he saw a wheel with a rim as sharp as a razor whirling around the soma... Then taking the soma, he broke the whirling machine...


Drona called Arjuna and said: "Accept from me this irresistible weapon called Brahmasira. But you must promise never to use it against a human foe, for if you did it might destroy the world. If any foe who is not a human attacks you, you may use it against him in battle. None but you deserves the celestial weapon that I gave you."


This is a curious statement, as what other kind of foe different from a human might there have been? Are we talking about an interplanetary war?

I shall fight you with a celestial weapon given to me by Drona. He then hurled the blazing weapon...
At last they came to blows, and seizing their maces struck each other.they fell like falling suns.
These huge animals, like mountains struck by Bhima's mace, fell with their heads broken, fell upon the ground like cliffs loosened by thunder.


Bhima took him by the arm and dragged him away to an open place where they began to fight like two elephants mad with rage. The dust they raised resembled the smoke of a forest fire; it covered their bodies so that they looked like swaying cliffs wreathed in mist.


Arjuna and Krishna rode to and fro in their chariots on either side of the forest and drove back the creatures which tried to escape. Thousands of animals were burnt, pools and lakes began to boil... The flames even reached Heaven... Indra without loss of time set out for Khandava and covered the sky with masses of clouds; the rain poured down but it was dried in mid-air by the heat.