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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Sanskrit
Dokras, Uday
Uday Dokras is a prolific writer with a focus on Eastern religions and history. Many of his papers are available on the Academia website(a). He is reputed to have written the highest number of books and research papers! Included in his extensive output is a book entitled Atlantis – The Lost Continent. In it he reviews the subject of sunken cities and land both in the West and in the Orient, such as Kumari Kandam(b). His chapter on Atlantis offers little that is new and is simply a brief review of current theories.
>He also produced a paper on the ancient lighthouse at Alexandria (Pharos)(c).
Arguably his most contentious offering is an extensive paper(d) on the existence of the vimanas of ancient India and Pakistan. He presents an array of evidence from Hindu scriptures and concludes with a review of modern writers and the unsuccessful attempts to design and build a vimana today using these old texts.
Although Dokras’ paper is worth a read, I suggest that it be undertaken along with the more critical responses of debunkers, such as, Jason Colavito has drawn attention to the fact that
“The concept of these flying chariots as UFO-style airships originates in a fraud, the Vaimanika Shastra, allegedly an ancient Sanskrit epic, but one “channeled” from the astral realm by a Hindu psychic in 1918. No evidence of this text exists prior to 1952, and even the “translator” of the text makes explicit that it was channeled from the spirit world between 1918 and 1923. The fake text specifically compares the vimanas to modern aircraft, describing their propulsion systems and other modern technological achievements.”(e) David Hatcher Childress’ story of the Vaimanika Shastra has been challenged elsewhere including an article by Andrew May(f).<
(a) https://su-se.academia.edu/DrUdayDokras
(b) https://www.academia.edu/95153127/ATLANTIS_The_lost_Continent_BOOK
(c) https://archive.org/stream/lighthouse-of-alexandria-book/Lighthouse%20of%20Alexandria-BOOK_djvu.txt *
(d) (99+) VIMANA Ancient Conquests of Wind | Dr. Uday Dokras – Academia.edu *
The Last Atlantis Book
The Last Atlantis Book [472] by Gene Matlock, claims on its cover that this is the last Atlantis book you will ever have to read. He attempts to prove that Mexico was the location of a Meso-American Atlantis that was essentially a Phoenician colony, established about 4000 BC. Although, a fairly slim volume, he covers a lot of ground, linking Mexico, India and Atlantis. He deals extensively with possible linguistic connections between Mesoamerica and Atlantis and Sanskrit. However, his linguistic abilities, not to mention his conclusions, have been subjected to severe criticism, as was the book generally. I think many more books other than Matlock’s will have to be read before the truth can be finally established.
Matlock identifies a site near San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán as matching Plato’s description of Atlantis. Matlock claims “the archaeological remains in San Lorenzo supposedly belong to the Olmec culture. The Olmecs themselves were either survivors of the Atlantis disaster or latecomers to the area”.
The back cover notes claim that over 25,000 books have been written about Atlantis. This is utter nonsense – at most the figure is in the mid hundreds. This sort of inaccuracy raises doubts about the quality of research and the rest of the book. Two further quibbles are that this book is surprisingly short at 140 pages and unforgivably, it has no index.
Matlock has also ventured into other contentious areas claiming that the story of Abraham and Sara of the Old Testament was based on Brahm and Saraisvati in Hindu mythology(a).
(a) https://www.lightforcenetwork.com/shabda-preceptor/who-was-abraham-paper-gene-d-matlock-ba-ma