The Story of Flight : Mythology

the story of flight: as told by the indian stamps

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Man has always wanted to fly like birds. His craving to fly has given rise to many popular children's stories woven around princes and princesses riding on flying horses. Ancient Indian mythology and puranic stories allude to flying on board the "Vimana". Garuda the flying vehicle (vahana) of Vishnu is a giant eagle. The Greek God Hermes has wings on his helmet and sandals to help him fly. The well known mythological aviators are Daedalus and his son Icarus. They had wings of feather attached by wax. The story has it that Icarus flew close to the sun and fell when the heat melted the wax. "Garuda", the famous painting of Acharya Nandalal Bose is depicted as a backdrop to his portrait in the stamp issued on April 16, 1967.