Must watch this world record.

The atomic bomb was used in the Mahabharata War?

An ancient, heavily populated city in Pakistan was instantly destroyed 2,000 years before Christ by an incredible explosion that could only been caused by an atomic bomb.

That's the mind bogging conclusion of a British researcher, David Davenport, who spent 12 years studying ancient Hindu scripts and evidence at the site where the great city - Mohenjo Daro once stood.For David Davenport, an English of Indian origins, expert of Sanskrit, a thermonuclear explosion isn't a far hypothesis at all.

The description of the immense power of such a weapon were contained in the Mahabharata, section Drona Parva, describing a weapon called "Agneya":

it was like a shiny rocket whose heat burned the world like a fever. Then, cold winds, cardinal points became clear and lightful.

Looking at the burned walls, the second possibility seems the right one. In fact, Indra lead a cruel invasion.

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In the Rigveda, it's written:

"devast the strong ones like time tears the clothes."

Everybody was slaughtered in loco.

The final touch was a sudden holocaust of fire. Davenport came back from Pakistan with some sample remains from the city. The CNR lead a serious analysis that amazed the researchers: the objects brought by him appeared to be fused, glassified by a heat as high as 1500°C, followed by a sudden cooling.

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Let's say that no natural phenomena can do the same. For Davenport, the destruction described in the Ramayana of the Danda Kingdom were nothing but the end of Mohenjodaro, also identified as Lanka, meaning "isle", which Mohenjodaro was built on.

Lord David William Davenport (left) with Ettore Vicenti (right), in Pakistan.

What was found at the site of Mohenjo Daro corresponds exactly to Nagasaki, declared Davenport, who published his startling findings in an amazing book, "Atomic Destruction in 2000 B.C.", Milan, Italy, 1979.

There was an epicenter about 50 yards wide where everything was crystallized, fused or melted, he said.

Sixty yards from the center the bricks are melted on one side indicating a blast. the horrible, mysterious event of 4,000 years ago that leveled Mohenjo Daro was recorded in an old Hindu manuscript called the Mahabharata, which has been guarded by holy men for centuries:

White hot smoke that was a thousand times brighter than the sun rose in infinite brilliance and reduced the city to ashes, the account reads. Water boiled...horses and war chariots were burned by the thousands.. . the corpses of the fallen were mutilated by the terrible heat so that they no longer looked like human beings...

The description concludes:

it was a terrible sight to see ... never before have we seen such a ghastly weapon.

Based on his study of many ancient manuscripts, Davenport believes that the end of Mohenjo Daro was tied to a state of war between the aryans and the mongols.

Aryans controlled regions where space aliens were mining minerals and exploiting other natural resources, he believes. Because it was a Mongol city, the aliens had agreed to destroy Mohenjo Daro on behalf of the Aryans.

The aliens needed the friendship of the Aryan kings so that they could continue their prospecting and research, explained Davenport.

Mohenjo Daro ruins

The texts tell us that 30,000 inhabitants of the city were given seven days to get out - a clear warning that everything was about to be destroyed. Obviously, some people didn't heed the warning, because 44 human skeletons were found there in 1927, just a few years after the city was discovered.

All the skeletons were flattened to the ground. For example, a father, mother and child were found flattened in the street, facedown and still holding hands. Interestingly, the ancient texts refer repeatedly to theVimanas, or the flying cars, which fly under their own power, he added.

Davenport's intriguing theory has met with intense interest in the scientific community. Nationally known expert William Sturm said:

the melting of bricks at Mohenjo Daro could not have been caused by a normal fire...

Added professor Antonio Castellani, a space engineer in Rome:

it's possible that what happened at Mohenjo Daro was not a natural phenomenon

The two great ancient epics of India, Ramayana and Mahabharata (c. 1000-500 BC) are centered on conflicts and refer to military formations, theories of warfare and esoteric weaponry.

Among the principal works and stories that are a part of theMahabharata are the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, an abbreviated version of the Ramayana, and the Rishyasringa, often considered as works in their own right. Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to Vyasa. With about one hundred thousand verses, long prose passages, or about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Ramayana. W. J. Johnson has compared the importance of the Mahabharata to world civilization to that of the Bible, the works of Shakespeare, the works of Homer, Greek drama, and the Qur’an.  —Source: Wikipedia

Flying Aircraft & Nuclear War and Other Strange Occurrences of The Past

Edited By James Hartman

The Indian Epics,  especially the MAHABHARATA, pick up the thread of the tale of devastation and destruction. Atlantis, rather displeased at its humiliating  defeat,  deceived   that  they  were  no  longer interested in subjugating  the Rama Empire (An Indian  Empire),  and decided instead to annihilate the major cities using weapons of mass destruction. Sanskrit scholars  could  not comprehend what was being described in the Epics until the dropping  of the first atomic bombs on Japan. There are AUTHENTIC VERSES from the Indian Epics:

“Gurkha, flying a swift and powerful vimana (fast aircraft)

hurled a single projectile (rocket) charged with the power

of the Universe (nuclear device). An incandescent column of

smoke and flame, as bright as ten thousand suns, rose with

all its splendor.
It was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic

messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race

of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.
The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable.

Hair and nails fell out; Pottery broke without apparent cause,

and the birds turned white.
…After a few hours all foodstuffs were infected…

…to escape from this fire the soldiers threw

themselves in streams to wash themselves and their

equipment.” — The Mahabharata

Indeed, this story is said to originate nearly 24,000 years ago!
If this is true than we are not the most advanced.
As the Bible says “There is nothing new under  the  sun.” Evidence  for  Atlantis   is   well documented.

If the above was not enough to convince your let me take you in deeper into this nuclear war:

“It was a weapon) so powerful that it could destroy the earth
in an instant  A great soaring sound in smoke and flames 
And on its sits death…” – The Ramayana

“Dense arrows of flame, like a great shower, issued
forth upon creation, encompassing the enemy…
A thick gloom swiftly settled upon the Pandava hosts.
All points of the compass were lost in darkness.
Fierce wind began to blow upward, showering dust and gravel.

Birds croaked madly… the very elements seemed disturbed.
The earth  shook,  scorched  by the terrible violent heat of this weapon.
Elephants burst into flame and ran to and fro in a frenzy…
over a vast area, other animals crumpled to the ground and died.
From all  points  of  the compass  the  arrows  of  flame  rained
continuously and fiercely. — The Mahabharata

The Ramayana and  the  Mahabharata seem like science  fiction.   Not only did aircraft exist such as Vimanas and Vailxi (as the Atlantian craft are called),  they  had  nuclear  weapons. There seems to be a fear of educating the worlds people  about  the  distant past.  Even empires and leaders of China’s past to Christians  to  Arab  peoples would destroyhistory  in  such  a way that records of there amazing cultures and events are nearly all  wiped  out. Indian Epics however are still with us intact. Records of South American  history all but gone.  Fear, and  other  factors have removed most of history before 5,000 years. Some only 1,000 years  ago. In the America’s just 300 -500 years all  most all lost! Today, perhaps some  UFO  records  are going the way of fears gate! However, again a few stories live on.

In another amazing  Indian  text  the  Agastrya  Samhita  gives  the precise directions for constructing electrical batteries:

“Place a well-cleaned copper plate in an earthenware vessel.
Cover it first by copper  sulfate  and  then  moist sawdust.
After that put a mercury-amalgamated-zinc sheet on top of
an energy known by the twin name of Mitra-Varuna. Water will
be split  by  this current into Pranavayu and  Udanavayu.  A
chain of one hundred jars is said to give a very active
and effective force.” –Agastya Samhita (Indian Princes’ Library)

By the way,  MITRA-VARUNA is now called cathode-anode, and Pranavayu and Udanavayu are to us oxygen and hydrogen. This document again demonstrates the presence of electricity  in  the  East,  long, long ago.  In the  not  so distant past strange events  are  recorded  in Europe’s past.

At Mount Cassino in Italy there is a large and heavy stone which was traditionally lifted by   Saint   Benedict  (A.D.  448-548)  by  the neutralization of gravity.  This stone  was intended for the wall of the monastery being  built at that time. The stonemasons  could  not budge it. However, Saint Benedict made the sign of the cross on the block, and while  the  seven  men  who  could  not lift it looked in amazement, he raised it alone without  any effort.  If this is true, than its evidence of God’s hand at work!

Even stranger is this: King Ferdinand I was a host  to Saint Francis of Paula (1416-1505)  in  Naples.  Through  a  half-opened  door  he witnessed the monk in meditation,  floating  high above the floor of his room.

Again in the fairly long ago past in China Emperor Cheng Tang (1766 B.C.), ordered Ki-Kung-shi  to  construct  a  flying   chariot.  The primeval aviation constructor  completed  the  job  and  tested  the aircraft. In flight, reaching the  province  of Honan. Subsequently, (from fear) the vessel was destroyed by imperial edict as Cheng Tang feared the secret of its mechanism might fall into the wrong hands.
If one looks at the past he can foresee and even change the future. Will we be  faithful  to  God  as  the  saints and lift  objects  or ourselves by Gods  power?  Will we ever come to full out Nuclear War as the people of Atlantis and Rama 24,000 years ago?

Will we build  Flying Chariots (Flying  Saucers)  and  destroy  them because we fear into what hands they will fall?  What will man do to destroy his past, present or future?  I leave that  question  up  to you!!!

Subject Related: The Mahabharata, Book 8: Karna Parva, Kisari Mohan Ganguli, tr. [1883-1896]  http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08034.htm

“It was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced
to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.” is actually found in Section 1 of
Mausala Parva.( http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16001.htm).

“When then next day came, Samva actually brought forth an iron bolt through which all the
individuals in the race of the vrishnis and the andhakas became consumed into ashes.
Indeed, for the destruction of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas, Samva brougt forth, through
that curse, a fierce iron bolt that looked like a Gigantic messenger of death. The fact
was duly reported to the king. In distress of mind, the king (Ugrasena) caused that iron
bolt to be reduced to a fine powder.Men were employed to cast the powder into the sea.”

The term “10000 suns” and “Super-abundant” perfectly fit into today’s description ofNuclear Energy. In fact what is depicted as an Iron bolt could actually have referred to Radioactive Iron (Iron-59 is known to be radioactive). Perhaps the usage of Iron-59 as a nuclear weapon was known to man in ancient times. The last sentence ” to cast the powder into sea”, is in good terms with the fact that water is a very effective shield for nuclear radiations. Perhaps that was the intention in casting the iron powder into the sea.

The section 2 of the Mausala parva also has,

“The streets swarmed with rats and mice. Earthen pots showed cracks or broke from no
apparent cause. At night, the rats and mice ate away thehair and nails of slumbering men”

and

“Fires, when ignited, cast their flames towards the left. Sometimes they threw out flames
whose splendour was blue and red. The Sun, whether when rising or setting over the city,
seemed to be surrounded by headless trunks of human form. In cook rooms, upon food that
was clean and well-boiled, were seen, when it was served out for eating, innumerable
worms of diverse kinds.”

The above passage too reminds us of the effects of a nuclear explosion, as foodstuffs get infected in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. In section 3, there is also a mention of the vaishnis taking shelter close to the sea coast. This might have as well meant that the vaisnis took shelter in the sea. As mentioned earlier, water is a natural shield to Nuclear radiations.

These above facts make us really wonder if the Mahabharata was indeed a nuclear war. In aid to the above mentioned facts, India, from times immemorial knew the existence of atoms and the atomic energy. The following shloka is evidence to the statement.

Krishna, Ancient Weapons of Mass Destruction and The Mahabharata

An article submitted by Ahmad from Malaysia

This article was written for the reason of unearthing the secret of ancient nuclear power. The facts stated here were not meant to put the blame on who is wrong or right. Ancient writings (religious texts) already mentioned the existence of such weapons that had very similar capacity as the modern day nuclear war-heads. How the human race faced such terribly destructive weapons in the olden days shall be the focal point of this article.

Note: I received this knowledge about ancient nuclear weapons directly from the Lord Krishna. I was told that I am the ninth person to learn about this secret through Lord Krishna. When I queried who the eighth person was he just smiled and declined to answer. According to Lord Krishna the first and the eighth persons received the same knowledge; unfortunately I don’t not know who they were.

The nuclear weapons existed in the ancient times and the evidence of their amazing power can be still found in modern days. These weapons were reportedly used during the war of Kurukshetra as documented in the Mahabharata. It is my hope that with this article we could reveal the truth about this ancient nuclear weapons. Prior to the invention of the atom bomb and nuclear war-head of present day, did we, as human ever faced such dangerous and destructive events? Certain factual text described in this article is being compared to that of the Mahabharata.

Angels and Gods from the Mahabharata

Lord Krishna in the Mahabharata was known as the Almighty. His very existence was quite difficult to pinpoint. However, what was clearly evident was that the word “Krish” which means “place” and “Na” means “high” or “highest” in the celestial world. It was also mentioned that Lord Krishna dwelled on the 20th planet called Krishnaloka. Lord Krishna was the ultimate ruler in the highest order amongst the Gods known then.
From the sacred rays that were being transmitted from his back shoulder He created Lord Wishnu who was responsible for the fine behavior and manner of the human kind in this world. Wishnu leaves in the sky that was then known as “blue ocean” or Indraloka.  Lord Brahma, on the other hand (who breathes instincts and needs) also was created though the same manner from Lord Krishna’s sacred rays. He dwelled on the 19th planet.
Lord Shiva, sacred spirit from Lord Wishnu, came to being from the lotus flower. Lord Shiva was the Lord of destruction and foolishness. Lord Shiva demonstrates his destructive ways when the human world faces war, over-population and famine. The destruction from typhoons, tornadoes, tsunamis, wars and the like were all the work of Lord Shiva. It was said to be the punishment of the planet.

Mahabharata

Mahabharata is an epic describing the war called “Kurukshetra” between Pandavas(Pendawa 5) and Hastina(Astino). It also describes the role of “Ibu Pendawa 5”, Dewi Kunti who possesses untold powers. In this war, there was a warrior that was lead by Lord Krishna; named Arjuna. The parties at war were relatives of Arjuna. Within this war, there was this sacred meditation that was formed as guidance to the people when their spirits were lacking. Krishna taught Arjuna about the art of self- defense as well as the finer inner spirit as a human being. It was also believed that Yoga and Yogi were introduced during this period and was upgraded to the ranks of “Roh”, “Rah” and “Brahmana”.
Apart from the relationship between Gods and humans during this war period, one other important aspect worth our attention is the invention of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). It was  given to Arjuna by the Lord Krishna to serve as a protective shield for the truth to be successful. It is not clearly said how these WMD were made available to Arjuna, but to the warring families, it was no longer a secret.
This WMD during the Kurukshetra war was known as “Cakra”. “Cakra” was the most destructive of all weapons that was given personally by Lord Krishna and Lord Wisnu; called it by the other name of “Sudal Sana” which was more powerful than “Barma Satara” the other WMD. It was said that if released, it would generate a great hot ray, reddish sky and fire-ball.

“Cakra” Launched (Ancient Nuclear)

During the chaos of the said war, one of Arjuna’s cousins launched the 5th weapon called “Barma Satara” which had the impact of a mighty nuclear power. According to the legend it was not clear how the relatives of Arjuna got to know the secret to launch such weapons. Arjuna himself had to obtain the consent from Lord Krishna who needed to explain the ways or consequences of such weapons.
It was believed that as a result of this launch; it has created layers upon layers of hot rays that penetrated the sky and slowly settled on to the earth (as multiple layers). Upon realizing that the never before used weapon has been accidentally released by his own cousin; and upon seeing the massive destruction that this weapon brought, Arjuna pleaded with Lord Krishna to gather all resources to protect what was left on the earth from the massive heat. With the kind guidance from Lord Krishna, Arjuna managed to protect the earth from the nuclear heat-wave by deflecting it skyward. This prevented the earth from complete destruction by  such nuclear disaster. It was also told that the nuclear cloud and heat-wave were noticeable in the area tens of kilometers wide and approximately 10 nautical miles in thickness.
During the “Kuruthesa”, Arjuna, who was coached directly by Krishna on the righteous way of a true noble being and the right path to eternity, was also introduced to  Yoga.  Arjuna was to practice it whenever he faced adversity. “Bhakti Yoga” practiced for 20 minutes would allow the mere mortal to overcome adversity and reach for Lord’s guidance.

“Cakra”- Weapon of Mass Destruction during “Kurukshetra”

According to Lord Krishna, the WMD was further divided into three levels:

• Highest “Cakra” (weapon) but never before used: “Sudal Sana”;
  this was the most secretive and complicated weapons owned by Lord Krishna himself.
  The energy from this weapon would be able to destroy dozens of planets
• Second “Cakra”: “Barma Satara” was a gift from “Dewa Api” to Lord Krishna and has 7 levels:
  • Level “Barma Satara” First
  • Level “Barma Satara” Second
  • Level “Barma Satara” Third
  • Level “Barma Satara” Fourth
  • Level “Barma Satara” Fifth (used by Arjuna’s cousin during “Kuruthesa”)
  • Level “Barma Satara” Sixth (equivalent to the destruction of Hiroshima)
  • Level “Barma Satara” Seventh ( widely used for self protection and medicines around the world)
• Third “Cakra” – has eleven sub-species (1-11)

“Cakra Barma Satara” was a gift presented to Lord Krishna by “Dewa Api” also known “Angeni Dewa” during one of the anniversary celebrating the re-birth of Lord Krishna in the year of “Kaliyuga”. Those who attended were Wishnu, Brahma, Shiva, Surian, Govindran (King of Heaven) and Maharaja Kartu. From the ancient Sanskrit scripture, it was widely mentioned that the Gods were using weapons of high destructive power similar to that of nuclear power. However, it must be noted that the ancient weapons did not utilize the same earthly materials as its contents. As mentioned above, “Cakra Sudal Sana” and “Barma Satara” were ancient nuclear weapons that had its own levels of complexity. Each levels had different rays of destruction. The advantages of these weapons were their ability to be controlled and to benefit other human activities or served as a source of massive energy for human kind to operate with. From the local knowledge and also from the researchers of ancient Hindu Jawa scriptures, it was proven that these weapons were well known and were in widely used at different level of skills that benefited human kind in many places on earth.

“Cakra” presently in used for various reasons

From the vicinity, “Barma Satara” the seventh was used widely as means to fight paranormal activities as well as a form of self-protection, medicine and war (not for massive destruction). Right up until now, its usage was limited to “Barma Satara” the seventh only as the operative secret was limited to this level. “Barma Satara” seventh has limited source of energy but it’s beneficial to the human kind in this region.

Examples: energy from “Barma Satara” seventh used by present human kind;

1. “Keris Terbang” ( Keris/Ancient Malay Weapon and Terbang means fly )
   • a. “keris Sumiyang”
   • b. “keris Brojol”
   • c. “keris Majapahit”
2. “Tuju Tuju” ( Black magic weapon)
3. “Bola Api” (Fire Ball)
4. It is believed from the ancient Sanskrit scriptures that thunder and lightning were normal fractions of “Barma Satara” energy sources that utilized normal scale nuclear power to chase away devils who prevented the rains from falling to the ground

Most of the sacred and magical power within the weapon’s structures and medicines used the energy similarly used in “Kurukthesa”.
All these mantras and key-words were made known to me. It has never crossed my mind to use it except for the good of humankind.
It could be summarized that all these energies from those ancient weapons were the source of energy of all magical yet mysterious events during ancient times. As a general observation, I would conclude that the reason as to why there’s such abundance of inherited petroleum was that humankind before us had the ability to utilize better sources of energy that were more powerful and environmentally friendly.

“Chakra” – Mantras

“Chakra” or weapons of such kind can only be manifested through mantras and key-words that could activate them. These weapons called “Chakra” were not formed by earthly means like fire, water, air nor earth; they could only be manifested through a few mantras. These concepts were commonly written in the old ancient scriptures, they existed in historical periods. What attracted me was that in physical form, these weapons could be launched and also could be stopped or prevented before they cause destruction to the earth.

The processes of the ancient nuclear power could be interpreted as follows:
During Launching:

• i) Key words or mantras to be uttered
• ii) The earth composition would be changed and heat wave and massive rays would be released into the air
• iii) At a sudden, a cloud of rays and heat will concentrate and a form a thick layer on top of the earth atmosphere
• iv) These layers of heat and rays would then cascade down to earth and resulting in massive destruction
• v) The end result would be worse than a nuclear explosion as the process involved the huge compactness of the wind and the air combined during this process

During the prevention of the heat and rays layer from reaching the earth

• I) Key words or mantras to be uttered
• II) The layers would then stopped in mid-air and vanishes before touching the earth’s surface
• III) These whole layers would then disappears from the air

As to what happened in “kuruthesa” ( when Arjuna prevented the rays and heat-wave to penetrate to the earth),  the heat-wave actually it vanished into thin air before it impacted the earth. The ability to know such structures and methods of these weapons would be beneficial for the present day humankind to compete with the mysteries of ancient beings and also would help to resolve the energy processes that would be simpler and could prolong the lifespan of this planet.

Future hopes that are strange and mystifying

It is my hope that with the revelation of the secrets to the mantras of the ancient nuclear power, we could further change the nuclear weapons into ultimate energy source.

Lord Krishna advised me that all these sources of energy should be used by mankind for sole purpose of good. According to Lord Krishna, he would come to anyone and explain the secret text to anyone he fancies regardless of his/her race or religion. Lord Krishna exists in his own form and no mantras or religion can make Him to reveal Himself, unless He wishes to do so.

தமிழனின் தலை சிறந்த சிற்பம் (40x90 cm measured wood carving contained Lord Shiva-Paarvathi sorrounding by nine saints .)

நாம் இன்று பெருமையுடன் தமிழையும் தமிழ் வரலாற்றையும் கலாச்சாரத்தையும் அழித்து வரும் வேளையில், 1000 ஆண்டுக்கு முன்னர் தமிழன் செதுக்கிய சிற்பம் தான் இது. ஒரு விரல் உயரம் இல்லை, ஒரு கை நீளமும் இல்லை.... எப்படி செதுக்கி இருப்பார்களோ??? உலகில் மற்ற நாடுகள் கட்டிடகலைகளில் இப்பொழுது வேண்டுமானால் சாத்தியம் ஆகலாம்... தமிழன் அன்றே சாதித்து விட்டான்.....அர்த்தநாரீஸ்வரர் கோவில் -திருச்செங்கோடு....

40x90 cm measured wood carving contained Lord Shiva-Paarvathi sorrounding by nine saints .

-Thiruchengode (Tamil Temples posted by Kishan)

Uncrackable Voynich manuscript

Uncrackable Code or Great Written Hoax? Progress in its Deciphering

(Circa 1404 – 1438)

Why scholars can’t resist the uncrackable Voynich manuscript

A mysterious illustrated manuscript book written in what long appeared to be an indecipherable text, has been the subject of much research and speculation for centuries. However, its author, script and language remain unknown, and for centuries it was believed that the manuscript might have been intentionally meaningless. The mysteries involved with this manuscript have resulted in various videos of which the following appeared to be the best in February 2014:

Studying it has been called ‘academic suicide,’ but an astonishing range of researchers have fallen under a mysterious document’s spell

By Ruth GrahamHERE IS WHAT is known about the Voynich manuscript, a mysterious document that has bedeviled scholars and top cryptographers for more than a century: It consists of 246 pages of handwritten script and illustrations. It was discovered in an Italian monastery by a Lithuanian bookseller named Wilfrid Voynich in 1912.

Here is what is not known: Just about everything else. The greatest code breakers of the last 100 years have failed to decipher the Voynich manuscript’s ornate script, or even agree on whether it says anything at all. Experts have theorized that it was written in Europe, Asia, or South America; they have speculated that it was created by Leonardo da Vinci, by 13th-century philosopher Roger Bacon, or Wilfrid Voynich himself. When it comes to code breaking, “The Voynich is the Mount Everest of the genre and the K2 at the same time,” said Nick Pelling, a British computer programmer who wrote a 2006 book about the manuscript and maintains a website about historical cyphers.

Today, the manuscript is kept at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where, according to staff, it is one of the library’s most frequently requested objects. Now that the library has put high-resolution scans of the pages online, the Internet turns up almost limitless chatter about the manuscript, much of it crackpot.

What is perhaps most striking about this unscalable peak, however, is how many different serious academic specialists have brought all the resources of their disciplines to try to climb it. Linguists have puzzled over the script, physicists have used computerized models to analyze its patterns, chemists have analyzed its parchment, and historians have traced its ownership through the centuries. Last month the Voynich landed in the news when a retired botanist and a retired Department of Defense information technologist proposed a new theory based in botany: Arthur Tucker and Rexford Talbert identified 37 of the manuscript’s 303 botanical illustrations as plants that could be found in a 16th-century botanical garden in central Mexico, and argued that the manuscript was written primarily in an extinct dialect of the Aztec language Nahuatl. Last week came another claim: Stephen Bax, a British applied linguist,announced he had translated 10 of its words.

Both of the new theories have been greeted with skepticism by longtime Voynich observers. “The temptation is always to fragment it, to look at a piece in isolation and say, ‘Ta da!’” Pelling said. “They get heavily invested in one tiny detail, and their enthusiasm for that detail wants them to shut their eyes to everything else.”

The fact that a botanist, an information technologist, and a linguist have published new theories on the manuscript within just a few weeks attests to the Voynich’s remarkable intellectual pull—and offers a fascinating illustration of what happens when you try to solve a puzzle with very different sets of tools.

That’s true even if the puzzle turns out to have no real answer at all—if the Voynich manuscript is, as some suspect, a hoax or a pure curiosity, perhaps even created to build this kind of feverish interest without giving up its secrets. Either way, whether the Voynich’s ability to draw disparate scholars to a common mystery came about accidentally or deliberately, it’s hard to deny that it is devilishly good at its job.

***

THE VOYNICH OFFERS more than just an uncrackable written code: Colorful illustrations depict fantastical plants, astronomical diagrams, and groups of naked women in bathtubs. You could embrace the book as a linguistic brainteaser, an antiquarian book novelty, a guide to a lost theory of the natural world, or a portfolio of outsider art.

Extraordinary as it is, the manuscript had largely disappeared from public record before Wilfrid Voynich’s discovery, though a rough history of its ownership can now be tracked back to the 17th century. (This history is contested, naturally.) A letter Voynich said he found with the manuscript traces the book’s ownership to Johannes Marcus Marci, a 17th-century scientist. Marci addressed the letter to Father Kircher, a Jesuit language expert, and pleaded for help deciphering it: “Such Sphinxes as these obey no-one but their master, Kircher.”

Based on information in the letter, Voynich suspected Roger Bacon was the author, which would have placed its origins in the 13th century. In 2009, however, scientists performed radiocarbon dating on scraps of the manuscript at the behest of a documentary film crew, and found that the bound collection of vellum pages dates back to the first half of the 15th century. This satisfied most so-called Voynichologists that it was not a later forgery—though not all of them, of course. Some say a 16th-century trickster could have bought a sheaf of old vellum in order to make his forgery look old.

The most important contemporary question about the manuscript is whether its text is “real” or not. Broadly speaking, there are three possibilities: It was written in a so-far undiscovered language; it was written in a code corresponding to a known language; or it’s a hoax written in a gibberish fake language. Few serious Voynichologists these days believe the script is written in an undiscovered “real” language, because it does not obey the rules of any other known languages: For example, one particular character appears only in the first lines of paragraphs. Most attention has focused on the notion that the manuscript is a cypher for a known language. Pelling, for example, believes it’s most likely a 15th-century “encyphered book of secrets,” similar to the handbooks of magic and medicine that would become popular in Italy in the 16th century. Over the years, people have guessed that the manuscript is written in coded Chinese, Welsh, Hebrew, or German.

This is one place that quantitatively minded scholars come in. Last summer, a physicist at the University of Manchester named Marcelo Montemurro coauthored a paper that used information theory to find that words are distributed within the manuscript in a complex pattern that mirrors real languages, and would have been extremely difficult to generate by hand in the 15th century. “The likelihood that it’s fake is not zero,” Montemurro said, “but it’s much less than before.”

Gordon Rugg, however, a respected British psychologist and computer scientist who wrote about the Voynich in his 2013 book, “Blind Spot: Why We Fail to See the Solution Right in Front of Us,” sees a case for the third possibility—and is not convinced by Montemurro and his coauthor’s findings. “They just say there are nonrandom parts, but everyone has known that,” Rugg said. “That’s been known for a long time.” In 2004, he published a bombshell paper in the journal Cryptologia claiming that the manuscript could be a hoax, a notion that had previously been dismissed because the text patterns were deemed too complicated to be faked. By using a table and grille—a simple chart of characters, and a paper with a rectangular hole cut out of it—Rugg was able to produce gibberish text that mimicked the complex, nonrandom patterns of a real language.

Part of Rugg’s belief in the hoax comes from the simple lack of strong evidence that it’s a code. “After 90 years of looking for a code and failing to find one, it would have had to be an astonishing code,” he said. “So you’ve got a choice between a very simple hoax that you could do in a couple of months, or an incredibly sophisticated code that’s several centuries ahead of its time.”

Rugg’s prime suspect is Edward Kelley, a con artist in the circle of Queen Elizabeth I who is known to have created a language he called Enochian. But Kelley is far from the only possibility. Andreas Schinner, an Austrian theoretical physicist who published a 2007 paper supporting Rugg’s hoax theory, speculates that the manuscript could have been created as a strange work of art, a philosophical experiment, or that the author could be an “a ‘savant,’ an autistic monk, who subconsciously followed a strange mathematical algorithm in his head.” Others have proposed that the author could have been a mentally ill person, or a quack mystic who could attract customers by claiming to be the only person to interpret the mysterious manuscript.
 

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THERE HAS ALWAYS been something slightly disreputable about studying the Voynich. Tucker and Talbert write in their new paper that studying it is considered “academic suicide.” Pelling goes farther, calling it “kryptonite.” As early as 1929, the historian Lynn Thorndike dismissed “occult” efforts to decipher the manuscript in favor of reading the volumes of historic scientific manuscript that are written in plain Latin. When Rugg published his paper in 2004, it was the first work on the subject to be published in a peer-reviewed journal in almost 50 years.

This is partly because thoughtful studies of the manuscript necessarily draw from different fields. “If you publish in a journal, there are boundaries you’re supposed to observe,” Pelling said. “It’s difficult to find a journal that fits those boundaries when what you’re studying goes across the boundaries.” He sees the Voynich as an indictment of the way many academic disciplines have fragmented over the course of the last century into smaller and smaller expertises. Pelling believes the answer to the manuscript will come from the field of intellectual history, whose practitioners look at historical evidence from a big-picture perspective, rather than the small-bore analysis of, say, botanists and statisticians.

As for Tucker and Talbert’s new paper proposing a Mexican Voynich, many of the world’s far-flung Voynich obsessives remain unimpressed. “The Tucker paper is just the same as so many other people’s Voynich theories,” Pelling said. Online, he blasted the authors’ “historical naivety and overhopeful botano-centricity.” Rugg is equally skeptical. “They didn’t do any of their homework,” he said. “It’s horribly easy to come up with an idea that looks plausible from within the confines of your own idea. But if you ignore the reasons that idea has been wiped off the board because of the ideas in another discipline, you’re going to end up looking unfortunate.” That is the major problem with the paper, many critics say: It only explains a small portion of the manuscript. If the manuscript was crafted by a native Mexican, asks René Zandbergen, a German space engineer and proprietor of a respected Voynich website, then why does it include a European zodiac design?

In this view, Tucker and Talbert fell into a familiar trap: They took the massively complicated manuscript, and extrapolated a sweeping conclusion from the sliver of clues that fit their hypothesis, while ignoring the many parts of the manuscript that don’t fit. Schinner compares it to the story of the blind men trying to describe an elephant, and who come up with vastly different hypotheses by feeling the trunk, the tusks, and the leg. “It is always bad scientific practice to totally ignore evidence contradicting [one’s] own position,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Schinner’s comparison suggests something else, too: In a way, whether the Voynich is someone’s organic creation or a hoax is almost beside the point. It is either a natural-born elephant, or one specifically engineered to confound and delight the “blind men” who have been obsessed with it for more than a century. Either way, it has withstood an astonishing amount of intellectual firepower from many directions. And in a world of specialists working in their own silos, the simple fact that it has fostered so many cross-disciplinary conversations—not to mention so much fun—makes it valuable.

That doesn’t mean that Voynichologists don’t long for, and expect, a solution to this seemingly unsolvable riddle. They are, after all, an optimistic bunch. “In my opinion, it could happen any time,” Zandbergen said. “It could happen tomorrow.”

Ruth Graham, a writer in New Hampshire, is a regular contributor to Ideas.