Introduction
What really reported some old Indian texts: ancient nuclear war between space-faring alien civilizations, between gods, or atomic warfare of long forgotten human civilizations like Atlantis that discovered the nuclear technology and air flight thousands of years before our contemporary science, or something else? Some ufologists claim that the nuclear weapons were given to the Indian warriors by extraterrestrials. Did indeed some ancient people suffer radiation sickness as a result of nuclear explosions?
The Mahabharata tells a story of the long war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas.
The Mahabharata, Book 7, says, “The valiant Açwatthāman … invoked the Agneya weapon incapable of being resisted by the very gods. Aiming at all his visible and invisible foes, the preceptor's son, that slayer of hostile heroes, inspired with mantras a blazing shaft possessed of the effulgence of a smokeless fire, and let it off on all sides, filled with rage. Dense showers of arrows then issued from it in the welkin. Endued with fiery flames, those arrows encompassed Partha on all sides. Meteors flashed down from the firmament. A thick gloom suddenly shrouded the (Pandava) host. All the points of the compass also were enveloped by that darkness. […] Inauspicious winds began to blow. The sun himself no longer gave any heat. Ravens fiercely croaked on all sides. Clouds roared in the welkin, showering blood. Birds and beasts and kine, and Munis of high vows and souls under complete control, became exceedingly uneasy. The very elements seemed to be perturbed. The Sun seemed to turn round. The universe, scorched with heat, seemed to be in a fever. The elephants and other creatures of the land, scorched by the energy of that weapon, ran in fright, breathing heavily and desirous of protection against that terrible force. The very waters being heated, the creatures residing in that element, O Bharata, became exceedingly uneasy and seemed to burn. From all the points of the compass, cardinal and subsidiary, from the firmament and the very Earth, showers of sharp and fierce arrows fell and issued, with the impetuosity of Garuda or the wind. Struck and burnt by those shafts of Açwatthāman that were all endued with the impetuosity of the thunder, the hostile warriors fell down like trees burnt down by a raging fire. Huge elephants, burnt by that weapon, fell down on the Earth all around, uttering fierce cries loud as those of the clouds. Other huge elephants, scorched by that fire, ran hither and thither, and roared aloud in fear, as if in the midst of a forest conflagration. The steeds, O king, and the cars also, burnt by the energy of that weapon, looked, O sire, like the tops of trees burnt in a forest fire. […] Burnt by the energy of Açwatthāman’s weapon, the forms of the slain could not be distinguished.” (translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguili)
Is this ancient Indian text telling us just thousands- years-old fantasies or it is reflecting some real events in the past?
Is it possible powerful scorching pillars of light, fiery columns, dazzling arrows and spears, or blazing vertical fountains to appear in the skies, devastating trees, animals, and human beings? What were the light arrows of different colors high in the skies that made the animals to run and burn?
What celestial weapon could cause the earth to tremble, knocking people off their feet?
Were there possible airbor