Shivkar Bāpuji Talpade was an Indian scholar who is said to have constructed and flown an unmanned airplane in 1895. Talpade lived in Bombay and was a scholar of Sanskrit literature and the Vedas.He belonged to the Pathare Prabhu community who were the early settlers of the Bombay city.
Talpade was born in the Chira Bazaar locality of Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra. He completed his school education in Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art. During his time there he came to know about ancient Indian aeronautics through his teacher Chiranjilal Verma, who led Talpade to read Swami Dayanand Saraswati's works related to ancient aeronautics, such as ‘Rigvedādic Bhāshya Bhumikā’ and ‘Rigved and Yajurveda Bhāshya’. However, some sources also suggests that his works were based on the work done by Maharishi Bharadwaja in Rigveda. Inspired by these texts he decided to construct the Vedic Vimāna described in the Vedas, and started learning Vedic Sanskrit language.
