Vishwakarma, the architect of the Gods, created miracles with his hands. His mind was like the cogs of a clock — always turning, and dreaming of new creations to present to the Gods. The wonders created by Vishwakarma for the Gods were marvelous, and consisted of cities such as Lanka and Dwarka, and the very heavens themselves — Svarga. It has been said, however, that his greatest creation as divine engineer was the Pushpaka Vimana.

Vishwakarma, walking along the river, stared into it's crystal clear waters and thought over its beauty. As he stared, the sun appeared from behind a cloud, blinding the God. He turned away from the light, cursing it for the pain it inflicted. He was pulled out of his anger as another cloud drifted in front of the sun and blocked its radiance. The cloud was illuminated by the sun, and the beauty of it set a fire in his mind that he could not put out.

The God set to work creating his greatest invention yet. Vishwakarma worked throughout the days and nights, perfecting his flying chariot. He envisioned a palace — twenty stories high, adorned with flowers, floating as gracefully as a cloud and emitting the light of the sun. Vishwakarma achieved all of this and more — the vimana could access the very thoughts of its driver, and take the controller to where they command.

Vishwakarma dubbed this creation "Pushpaka Vimana" — "aeroplane with flowers." The Engineer God created many more vimanas in inspiration of his original, but none could hold a candle to the Pushpaka Vimana.

At last he finished, and presented his creation unto the God Brahma. "The light shining from it — it is as if you've harnessed Surya, the very sun himself," claimed Brahma.

"Ay, it is indeed a wondrous feat. I shall give it to you, dear friend."

Brahma, with much gratitude, accepted the gift. For many years the vimana remained in his possession, until he decided to bestow it unto the God Kubera. Kubera readily received the gift, and showed the marvel to everyone in Lanka.

But lo, the Demon King Ravana had plans for his half-brother Kubera. Ravana was ambitious and greedy. He looked upon the wealth his brother had and desired it for himself. Ravana stole the Vimana, and used it to overthrow his brother Kubera. Having done so, he took Lanka for himself and established his own kingdom.

The technology to create flying spaceships was obviously not available to ancient civilization. Having read the story, it's clear the ancient Indians had some sort of knowledge regarding flying objects. Whether this is in relation to Gods, Aliens, or just human imagination is only known to the ancients. However, taking Ancient Astronaut Theory into consideration, we can speculate about the origins of this craft.

According to the theory, extraterrestrial beings visited ancient cultures. The result of this visitation was the creation of our modern technology, religion, and even our biological makeup. Many pseudo-scientists who believe this theory suggest that the deities of ancient religions are, in actuality, aliens who visited our planet in antiquity. This would explain the many powers that the Gods had.

Could the Pushpaka Vimana have been an extraterrestrial's spaceship? In Erich von Däniken's book Chariot of the Gods, Däniken supports this theory, and suggests many myths in every culture were interactions with ancient aliens.

If, indeed, the Pushpaka Vimana was a spaceship, what was it's purpose and why was it on earth? There are many who believe a great war took place in our solar system in antiquity. The many different types of vimana could have been warring alien faction's spaceships.

In fact, many ancient cultures describe a battle of Gods taking place in the sky. Could each mythological story of the gods be, in actuality, a historic retelling of an alien war?