Pushpaka Vimāna

Pushpaka Vimāna, “the flowery vimāna”

Vimāna has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vimāna.

A vimāna is a flying vehicle of the devas. The Pushpaka Vimāna is a divine flying palace of divine make. Rāvaṇa took it from Kubera, his elder brother and the deva of wealth. It was first made by Viśvakarmā for Brahmā, then given to Kubera, and then seized by Rāvaṇa during his conquest of svarga. In the Sundara Kāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa, the Pushpaka Vimāna is described as the vehicle in which Rāvaṇa carried Sītā away to Laṅkā.

It was an extraordinary vehicle. It could hold any number of passengers, flew wherever its owner willed, and was made of gold and set with gems. Its greatness shows how much power Rāvaṇa had gathered, and how much of what he had taken came from the devas.

Origin and Nature

The Pushpaka Vimāna was not made by any human or rākshasa. It was made by Viśvakarmā, the architect of the devas, and given to Brahmā. Brahmā gave it to Kubera, the keeper of all wealth. The vimāna could travel as fast as thought. It could grow to hold any number of passengers. It moved by the will of its owner, and it blazed with the light of gems and gold, a palace moving through the sky. Trees, gardens and paths were inside it; it was a whole world in motion.

Rāvaṇa Takes the Vimāna

In the course of his conquest of the three worlds, Rāvaṇa defeated Kubera and took the Pushpaka Vimāna from him. Taking the vimāna showed how Rāvaṇa overturned the rightful order. Kubera, the deva of wealth, was Rāvaṇa’s own elder half-brother, so taking what was his was adharma (an act against dharma) within the family as well as a show of raw conquest. From then on Rāvaṇa used the vimāna as his personal flying vehicle.

The Abduction of Sītā

It was in the Pushpaka Vimāna that Rāvaṇa carried Sītā from Pañcavaṭī in the Daṇḍaka forest to Laṅkā. The Sundara Kāṇḍa, in its account of Rāvaṇa’s palace as Hanumān saw it and in its memories of the event, keeps the descriptions of the vimāna’s splendour and of Sītā’s grief inside it as it carried her away from Rāma. The same vimāna that carried Sītā into captivity would later carry Rāma, Sītā, Lakshmaṇa and the vānara (monkey) army back to Ayodhyā after the war, completing the journey from abduction to restoration.

Vibhīshaṇa’s Gift and the Journey Home

After the war was won, Vibhīshaṇa brought the Pushpaka Vimāna and offered it to Śrī Rāma. He described its nature and invited Rāma to use it for the journey back to Ayodhyā. Rāma gladly accepted. He knew it would let him keep his promise to Bharata to return within fourteen years of the start of his exile, a deadline that was now very close.

The vimāna carried Śrī Rāma, Sītā, Lakshmaṇa, Vibhīshaṇa, Sugrīva and the chief vānara commanders north from Laṅkā. As it flew, Śrī Rāma described to Sītā the land and its history below them. He pointed out the Setubandha (the bridge to Laṅkā), the battlefield, the Kishkindhā forest and the āśramas (hermitages) of the great ṛshis they passed over. So the Pushpaka Vimāna became the place where Rāma explained the meaning of the war to Sītā, a flying classroom for the greatest telling of the events of the Rāmāyaṇa.

The vimāna stopped at Kishkindhā to pick up Sugrīva’s queens and the wives of the vānara commanders. It went on to the āśrama of Bharadvāja Ṛshi, where Rāma paid his respects. From there it went to Nandigrāma, where Bharata had waited for fourteen years. After the great reunion at Nandigrāma, the whole company went on to Ayodhyā by chariot, but the flight of the Pushpaka Vimāna was the most celebrated part of the homecoming.

The Agni Purāṇa (Chapter 10) tells the journey in brief. When the war was over, Indra had rained amṛta and brought the vānaras back to life, and Śrī Rāma had given the kingdom of Laṅkā to Vibhīshaṇa, Śrī Rāma mounted the Pushpaka with Sītā, glad at heart. He showed Sītā the forests and the hard places they had passed through, and went back towards Ayodhyā by the way he had come. He bowed to Bharadvāja Maharshi; from there he went to Nandigrāma, where Bharata bowed to him; and he went on to Ayodhyā, where he bowed to Vasishṭha Maharshi and to Kausalyā, Kaikeyī and Sumitrā, and took up the kingdom.

After the Rāma-paṭṭābhisheka (Rāma’s coronation) was complete, Śrī Rāma returned the Pushpaka Vimāna to Kubera, its rightful owner, from whom Rāvaṇa had seized it. So the vimāna’s journey came full circle: from Kubera to Rāvaṇa by conquest, from Rāvaṇa to Rāma through a war fought for dharma, and from Rāma back to Kubera by rightful return.

The Pushpaka in the Yātrā Kāṇḍa: One Hundred Floors

The Yātrā Kāṇḍa of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa gives the fullest description of the inside of the Pushpaka. When Rāma set out on his great tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage) across all four quarters of Bhārata, the vimāna was enlarged to one hundred floors. This made room for the whole royal court, the kings under Rāma’s rule, their armies, animals, servants and dependents.

Each floor was set aside for a particular group. Rāma’s family was at the top. Below them were the vānara chiefs (Sugrīva, Hanumān, Aṅgada and others), Vibhīshaṇa and the kings under Rāma. Further down were their armies with elephants, horses and camels. The cooks, physicians, Vedic scholars, bards, entertainers and craftsmen had floors of their own. The vimāna worked as a complete flying city.

The text notes a charming problem of plenty. Food was always available in the vimāna without limit, and the passengers’ only complaint was that they could not feel hungry enough to enjoy eating. The physicians on board gave medicines (cūrṇa) to those who wished to feel hunger.

When the Pushpaka came near Pushkara during the western part of the pilgrimage, its sound could be heard from miles away. It was a great roar made of mṛdaṅga drums, vīṇās, conch shells, bells, flags flapping in the wind, the chanting of the Vedas and Rāma-nāma (the name of Rāma), the churning and grinding from the kitchens, the cries of elephants, horses, camels and monkeys, and the jingling ornaments of dancing women. The people of Pushkara heard this roar coming at night and wondered what it was: Nandī‘s bell, Indra‘s vimāna, apsarās coming down, the ocean rising, or Hanumān’s roar. Then they saw the great Pushpaka itself.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Sundara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 7–9
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa, Chapters 124–131
• Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Yātrā Kāṇḍa (Book 2), Chapters 5 and 8
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 10