Circumstantial evidence is still evidence.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

1st of all thanks to all you SIRS for giving your valuable viewpoints ..2ndly sorry I was little busy during weekdays..( coz of *&* internet marketing professional ***** forget..) so just unavailable to clarify my point...

See friends I have nothing which proves that they have any kind of Vimanas ( you seems discussed a lot.. ) or what kinda supernatural powers they have or what is written in ancient books and how much is reality(just coz someone is saying means should I accept ! )....

My assertion is based on some points...Just as Mr. Trocisp talk about Jupiter..see what to take into account is that they take jupiter as protector ( some dev guru brahaspati If I am right) and see practically ( broad image ) its indeed a protector..Its gravity did protect us from big pieces/ rocks/ asteroids ( whatever they are called ...) This is just one similarity which I notice....( POINT TO TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT-- GRAVITATION/GRAVITY IS THE CONNECTION BRIDGE.....WHICH RELATES THESE STORIES AND TECH..CONCEPT..
AND RAISE YOUR HANDS HOW MANY OF YOU SAY THAT WE KNOW THE ORIGINAL FORCE which is w.r.t. MATTER THAT WELL. Most of the physics laws and all chemical bondings are coz of it... )

See what my 2nd point was....

I talk about gravity ...not their stories.(...that I am talking because that percentage of people on planet have faith or etc..)..What the concept is that Gravitational force is the thing which do helps in movements around..but its mathematics seems far complex....

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I thought I would do a little bid of Googling on this subject and top of the hit list as you would expect came Wikipedia which had this to say:
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The predecessors of the flying vimanas of the Sanskrit epics are the flying chariots employed by various gods in the Vedas: the Sun (see Sun chariot) and Indra and several other Vedic deities are transported by flying wheeled chariots pulled by animals, usually horses (but the Vedic god Pūsan's chariot is pulled by goats, as is that of Norse Thor).

The Rigveda does not mention Vimanas, but verses RV 1.164.47-48 have been taken as evidence for the idea of "mechanical birds":

47. kṛṣṇáṃ niyânaṃ hárayaḥ suparṇâ / apó vásānā dívam út patanti
tá âvavṛtran sádanād ṛtásyâd / íd ghṛténa pṛthivî vy ùdyate
48. dvâdaśa pradháyaś cakrám ékaṃ / trîṇi nábhyāni ká u tác ciketa
tásmin sākáṃ triśatâ ná śaṅkávo / 'rpitâḥ ṣaṣṭír ná calācalâsaḥ

"Dark the descent: the birds are golden-coloured; up to the heaven they fly robed in the waters.
Again descend they from the seat of Order, and all the earth is moistened with their fatness."
"Twelve are the fellies, and the wheel is single; three are the naves. What man hath understood it?
Therein are set together spokes three hundred and sixty, which in nowise can be loosened." (trans. Griffith)

In Dayananda Saraswati's "translation", these verses become:

"jumping into space speedily with a craft using fire and water ... containing twelve stamghas (pillars), one wheel, three machines, 300 pivots, and 60 instruments."

But likelier in the original Indian symbolism when that hymn was composed, the wheel is a year, the 12 "fellies" are months (lunations), and the 360 spokes are days.
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As I suspected and is often the case with ancient writings it is all in the translation. Most of us cannot read ancient texts in their original form and must rely upon the work of others to provide us with the supposed evidence. It is often here that the first "corruption" of the original story appears as the translator repackages the words to either suit a modern audience or to present the information in a way that supports his point of view.

Let us not forget some very important facts about technologies they are the products of their own time and culture built upon with gradual improvements.

If a 21st century electronics engineer were "magically" transported back to early Victorian England and went to have a meeting with IK Brunel, Babbage or the Stevensons or any of the other great engineering and mechanical minds of those times and said "Hey guys I have a great idea to build a machine that can do accuracte calculations at high speed and help with all your projects". He would not have got very far in a society which was still grappling with basics of direct current produced from lead acid cells. So what, if he could draw diagrams of and explain to them how a microprossor works, nobody including him could make one given the tools and materials available in the 1840s.

Similarly for an ancient culture to have had aircraft as advanced as we have today or even spacecraft more advanced than we have yet built, then they would have needed the industrial base to build it and support it. No single Royal Appointed Engineer, no matter how visionary, could construct a modern air force without all the trappings of an industrial society. Where were the powerplants to power the factories, where were the factories for the fabricating the avionics, the tyres for the landing gear, insulation, sound proofing, not to mention all the copper wire or fiber optics. The refinerys for producing the fuels, the mines to obtain the aluminium and other essential materials. If all that had existed way back then you can be sure that some evidence of it would still be found today.

If on the other hand you are going to suggest that the ancients did not need crude machines like turbojets but that their aircraft could be flown by the mental power of levitation, then I suggest you take that to a Supernatural forum not here. Furthermore if the anicents posessed such powerful forces as modern fighter and bomber squadrons then they would have certainly retired all their war elephants, in which case there would be no mention of those animals in their battles. When was the last time you heard of a Cavalry Brigade charging into battle on horseback supported by a squadron of jets up above. It has never happened because it does not make technological sense. Furthermore if you are going to credit an ancient civilisation with advanced technologies they have to fit into their own rational chronology. There is no point in one account suggesting they had antigravity propulsion while at the same time describing how in another verse that their machines made sounds like jet engines - cherry picking the odd phrase here or there from some ancient writing and then by using dubious translation to find equivalent modern words to say "look! they are are talking about a nuclear submarine" is something I am always deeply sceptical about.

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True, though not reliable evidence. The problem in this case is defining what counts as even circumstantial evidence, and what counts as misleading false evidence. Without any non-circumstantial evidence to provide an outside context for our judgements of mythology, there's no way to tell what's based on reality (and to what degree) and what's just made up.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
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Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

If this is evidence, than every interpretation of every story ever written, regardless of objective verification, is "evidence." So, that would make my D&D Monster Manual evidence.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

It's not even a weak piece of evidence, I think, because we don't know the context.
It's our interpretation that makes it look one thing or another, neither verifiable or falsifiable.

Your D&D Monster Manual is a good comparison:
bury that for a few thousand years, and future generations might not be able to interpret its context anymore
(might as well be evidence for the existence of mythological beings...)

That's an excellent piece of writing, 3rdvogon.

And frankly, real history (or for that matter, mythology in the form it was originally intended to be) is far more interesting than "Hey wow, aliens gave them antigravity!" nonsense, although that sort of thing can make for enjoyable fantasy novels.

As has been observed, Homer wrote about robots - suits of armour that walked around and did skilled smithy tasks for Hephaestus. Well actually they were not robots in the sense we mean. They had magic animating spirits in them, not servo motors and microprocessors, because Homer didn't know about these things.

Let me go by your point..because your point is right on technical ground....

Leave aside those historic aliens for a while.....

Do you ever imagine to relate gravity to movement in this way....that's the whole center of mass/ core of all discussion..????

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I have read this, and your other comments about gravity. I have no idea what you mean.

I've sometimes been amused by the idea of what folks a few thousand years from now might make of fragmentary records of Star Trek/Star Wars/Star Gate/B5 etc. Here, of course, you have stories with people that are made up to look a little unusual, using fantastic machines (starships are essentially modern flying chariots). I expect there would be some claiming they are evidence of ET visitation, though.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand your question. Just guessing, but are you talking about the "Planet X" idea? We've occasionally had folks arguing for a (somehow) invisible giant planet, sometimes called "Planet X" or "Nibiru" that (according to them) is supposed to enter the inner solar system in just a few years (or in other versions of the story, was supposed to be here already). Is this what you're referring to? If that is the case, I'm afraid there's no evidence for it.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

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Fields of Space

LOGIC, n.
The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.

In the Year 2525.

"One small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind".

If an astronaut doesn't need good grammar, niether does you.

Host of Seraphim

I would love to listen in on those debates

We already have a model to go on there - remember Galaxy Quest and the "Historical Documents"?

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Note 1. All requests for planetary demolition must now be submitted in quadruplicate on form UX-565/B4 and be counter-signed by the assistant administrative officer for interstellar traffic calming - department QG-7. Subject to approval by the chief planning officer and the infrastructure development coordination sub-committee.

Another model to go on is the 'True History' written by Lucian of Samosata in the second century C.E. He describes a journey to the Moon, mentions colonies on Venus and on comets, and a war between the Sun and the Moon.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/true/index.htm

If this story only existed in fragments, and the first part (where he admits that the story is not, in fact true) were missing, what would the Von Dannikens of the world make of it?

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Sorry but after looking at the way discussion is going on.... it seems that my comment about gravity looks too supernatural or imaginary.......but frankly for me its all natural...(yeah some tough work ahead.....leave)..Ok then I ask it in more understandable way....
What do you guys think of gravity...how does it affects in movement around for creatures.( Is that too imaginary concept...a kinda sci-fi......! )

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I still don't understand the question. Do you mean how creatures move in gravity as opposed to free-fall conditions?

__________________
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

I think