

- Secrets of the lost tomb ancient myths and legends how to#
- Secrets of the lost tomb ancient myths and legends skin#
Two centuries after Ajatasatru, Asoka ruled the powerful Mauryan Empire in Pataliputta, 273-232 B.C. The sprawling Maurya Empire in about 250 B.C. Well hidden and expertly guarded, the relics – and robots – fell into obscurity. Once back in India, the son retrieves the plansfrom his father’s body and follows their instructions to build the automated soldiers for King Ajatasatru to protect Buddha’s relics in the underground chamber. He’s caught and killed, but his son recovers his body and brings it to Pataliputta. Then he tells his son to make sure his body makes it back to Pataliputta and starts the journey.
Secrets of the lost tomb ancient myths and legends skin#
One day he steals plans for making robots and hatches a plot to get them back to India.Ĭertain of being slain by killer robots before he could make the trip himself, he slits open his thigh, inserts the drawings under his skin and sews himself back up. He marries the daughter of the master robot maker and learns his craft. In the legend, the young man of Pataliputta finds himself reincarnated in the heart of Roma-visaya.
Secrets of the lost tomb ancient myths and legends how to#
Rumors of the fabulous robots reached India, inspiring a young artisan of Pataliputta, Ajatasatru’s capital, who wished to learn how to make automatons. Robot makers were forbidden to leave or reveal their secrets – if they did, robotic assassins pursued and killed them. The robots of Roma-visaya carried out trade and farming and captured and executed criminals. The Yavanas’ secret technology of robots was closely guarded. In this tale, many “yantakara,” robot makers, lived in the Western land of the “Yavanas,” Greek-speakers, in “Roma-visaya,” the Indian name for the Greco-Roman culture of the Mediterranean world. But the most striking version came by a tangled route to the “ Lokapannatti” of Burma – Pali translations of older, lost Sanskrit texts, only known from Chinese translations, each drawing on earlier oral traditions. In some versions the robots are driven by a water wheel or made by Visvakarman, the Hindu engineer god. Hindu and Buddhist texts describe the automaton warriors whirling like the wind, slashing intruders with swords, recalling Ajatasatru’s war chariots with spinning blades. Suraj Belbase/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA Join the newsletter Ancient robots and automatons A statue of Visvakarman, the engineer of the universe. According to the story, it was foretold that Ajatasatru’s robots would remain on duty until a future king would distribute Buddha’s relics throughout the realm. In India, automatons or mechanical beings that could move on their own were called “ bhuta vahana yanta,” or “spirit movement machines” in Pali and Sanskrit.

But in the legend, Ajatasatru’s guards were extraordinary: They were robots. Traditionally, statues of giant warriors stood on guard near treasures. Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Wikimedia Commons A sculpture depicting the distribution of the Buddha’s relics. The king hid them in an underground chamber near his capital, Pataliputta (now Patna) in northeastern India. When Buddha died, Ajatasatru was entrusted with defending his precious remains. Ajatasatru, who reigned from 492 to 460 B.C., was recognized for commissioning new military inventions, such as powerful catapults and a mechanized war chariotwith whirling blades. The story is set in the time of kings Ajatasatru and Asoka.
