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This answer starts with the assertion:


Sorry to burst your bubble, the simple answer is there was no such technology or knowledge at the time.

Brahmāstra, Vāruṇāstra and Āgneyāstra are all mythical weapons that sprung from the imagination of authors of the two epics and Purāṇas.

To start off, this assertion is utterly disrespectful towards the Rishis whose works are considered as authority here on this site. But that's alright for me as I am accustomed to see such statements and attempts being made by this particular user several times in the past too.

I am concerned about the two sources used in the answer.

  • Are those two sources considered valid here? Are opinions of Mr. Sankalia etc considered as valid sources to cite on this site?
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  • I had raised a similar query on this answer -hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/37840/18974 . I too felt Smt Kamala is not a good source. But was told that it is upto the OP to accept an answer as valid or not, irrespective of the sources cited in the answer. I believe the only solution is to register our observation in the comments section underneath the question/answer or via downvote
    – Artist Formerly Known As CSD
    Commented Feb 2, 2020 at 6:41

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The references cited in the answer sound no more than opinion of authors who did either archeological survey or aimed to discover political history of India.

If you just read the information about book on google book page, it is clear that they are considering Ramayana to be moreover a fictitious story rather than reality.

Combining the results from multifold approach with that from flora and fauna, primitive tribes, and a critical study of the Ramayana he came to the conclusion that the Ramayana as it exists today is not old as popularly believed, but also is largely mythical...

So, these source are not in accordance of Hindu traditions which believes Ramayana to be an Itihasa and not fictitious story.

As we have discussed here. Works of Acharyas and saying of Gurus, saints are allowed here and we can't judge the reliability of the source in advance so in such cases voting on the post may determine the reliability of answer. As we can see in this answer, sources are not per Hinduism point of view. History and archeology would fit on History Stack Exchange and mythology, folklore on Mythology Stack Exchange.

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    "The references cited in the answer sound no more than opinion of authors who did either archeological survey or aimed to discover political history of India." -- Yes very true. So what should be our action now?
    – Rickross
    Commented Feb 4, 2020 at 12:09
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    Can we go to Christianity.SE and assert there that whatever written in your scriptures are false using a source that is valid for Physics.SE? This is what has happened in this case. I think we should take this issue seriously.
    – Rickross
    Commented Feb 4, 2020 at 12:15
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    "no more than opinion of authors" - Did you miss #2 from the guidelines or purposely avoided it? "2. In the absence of any scriptural reference, written works of scholars, researchers and popular personalities can be used which must be providing a relevant answer."
    – Say No To Censorship
    Commented Feb 4, 2020 at 17:47
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From Guidelines for new users answering questions:

2. In the absence of any scriptural reference, written works of scholars, researchers and popular personalities can be used which must be providing a relevant answer.

According to Wikipedia, H. D. Sankalia studied Sanskrit, ancient Indian history and specialized in archaeology. James Talboys Wheeler also has several books/volumes on Indian history to his credit.

So both sources cited in the answer are valid according to current site rules/FAQs.

If you don't like such answers, instead of targeting me/my views/sources I cited, you should take a good look at the question which resulted in such an answer:

Why do we not have the flying technology used by Ravana, or MeghDhanush?

Such questions are very open-ended and can be answered using a wide variety of sources including works of secular historians.

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    A person does not become an authority for this site by simply writing books on Indian History. This site is on religion (Hinduism) and not on Indian History or on History in general.
    – Rickross
    Commented Feb 5, 2020 at 8:22
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    "This site is on religion (Hinduism) and not on Indian History or on History in general." - FYI, this site has many questions with the tags 'India' and 'History' which only a historian can answer. As I've tried explaining it to you, if you've a problem w/ opinions of historians, you need to work on redefining the scope of the site to disallow such questions. This is a Q&A site, so the sources cited in the answer are dictated by the questions. E.g., questions like this can only be answered by a historian who has studied different religions. @Rickros
    – Say No To Censorship
    Commented Feb 5, 2020 at 19:25

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