Bengaluru: The Sri Lankan government believes that King Ravana was the first aviator in the world and flew over 5,000 years ago and the country’s Civil Aviation Authority has now launched an initiative to understand the methods used by him to fly in ancient times.
Speaking to News18 over telephone from Colombo, Civil Aviation Authority vice-chairman Shashi Danatunge said they had irrefutable facts to prove that Ravana was the pioneer and the first to fly using an aircraft.
“King Ravana was a genius. He was the first person to fly. He was an aviator. This is not mythology; it’s a fact. There needs to be a detailed research on this. In the next five years, we will prove this,” he said.
A conference of civil aviation experts, historians, archaeologists, scientists and geologists was held at Katunayake, where Sri Lanka's biggest international airport Bandaranaike is located on Wednesday.
The conference concluded that Ravana first flew from Sri Lanka to today's India 5,000 years ago and came back. However, many dismissed the stories that Ravana had kidnapped Lord Rama's wife Sita, claiming that it was an Indian version, and Ravana was a noble king.
There is renewed interest about the ancient Lanka king in Sri Lanka these days. Sri Lanka has recently sent a satellite called Raavana to outer space in the first space mission.
Many in Sri Lanka believe that Ravana was a benevolent king and a scholar. Even some Indian scriptures describe him as "Maha Brahmana", meaning a great Brahmin or a great scholar.
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