What means of conveyance would I demand from another nation? The flying machine out of the mythology of the Indian subcontinent, of course.
The answer is obvious.
On the latest episode of The Editors podcast, host Rich Lowry asked a deliberately silly yet also fascinating question. Inspired by Qatar’s proposed (highly improper) gift of a luxury jet, to be used as Air Force One, to the Trump administration, Rich posed the following query to the assembled guests:
You’re president of the United States. And let’s put all these righteous denunciations of what Trump’s trying to do here aside and get real. You could choose any country to gift you a means of conveyance. What is that gift? Where is it coming from?
I was impressed with my colleagues’ answers. Noah Rothman threw physics and practicality out the window and said he would demand a resplendent, Nautilus-style submarine (from Australia). My childhood (and adulthood) love of Jules Verne (about which readers will soon learn more) endeared me to his answer. Charlie Cooke would have a Swiss roller coaster on the White House lawn — possibly open to the public, though he, as president, would get an express pass.. (It did not occur to Charlie to make the roller coaster traverse the entirety of the United States, somewhat like the train in Snowpiercer.) Jim Geraghty wished for an Iron Man suit — or, failing that, a really fancy plane. Rich himself went for an Israeli tank.
All are good answers. But when I was listening to this episode, the correct answer sprang to mind immediately, such that I reflexively shouted the word (likely to the confusion of anyone who might have been around me): “Vimana!”
What, it wasn’t obvious? Okay, fine. Vimana are flying craft that appear in the mythology of the Indian subcontinent. Their capabilities are impressive, but also eerily recognizable to us today:
The Sanskrit word ‘Vimana’ (meaning a part that has been measured and set aside) first appeared in Vedas with several meanings ranging from temple or palace to mythological flying machine. References to these flying machines were common in ancient Indian texts, even describing their use in warfare, and being able to fly within Earth’s atmosphere. Vimanas were also said to be able to travel into space and under water. The Sun and Indra and several other Vedic deities were transported by flying wheeled chariots pulled by animals, usually horses, but others like the “agnihotra-vimana” (Agni means fire) with two engines and the “gaja-vimana” (elephant powered) were known. Rigveda also talks of “mechanical birds”. Later texts around 500 BC talk of self-moving aerial car without animals. In some modern Indian languages, the word vimana means aircraft.
On their purported use in warfare: Some accounts of the craft appear to describe a kind of ancient nuclear exchange.
I don’t know if India today has access to vimana and they are just holding out on the rest of the world. But the colloquy on The Editors sidelined not just ethics but also physics and maybe even reality itself. So, obviously, it would be a vimana for me. Pony — or beam me? — up, Modi.