The vice chancellor of Andhra University, G Nageshwar Rao, on Friday claimed that India had the knowledge of stem cell research, test tube fertilisation and guided missiles thousands of years ago, citing tales from the Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, PTI reported. Rao was speaking at the 106th Indian Science Congress in Jalandhar.

“We had hundreds of Kauravas from one mother because of stem cell research and test tube baby technology,” Rao claimed. “It happened a few thousand years ago. This was science in this country...Mahabharat says, 100 eggs were fertilised and put into 100 earthen pots. Are they not test tube babies? Stem cell research in this country was present thousands of years ago.”

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Rao also claimed that Hindu deity Ram used “astras” and “shastras” or weapons which would hit targets and return. This was proof that the science of guided missiles was present in India thousands of years ago, Rao said. He said that Ravana from the Ramayana had 24 types of aircraft of different sizes and capacities and had several airports in Lanka.

Meanwhile, Kanan Jegathala Krishnan, who claimed to be a senior research scientist at the World Community Service Centre in Tamil Nadu, said English physicist Isaac Newton had very little understanding of gravitational forces, while theoretical physicist Albert Einstein had misled the world with the theory of relativity, ThePrint reported.

Krishnan claimed that Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan will be a bigger scientist than former President and scientist APJ Abdul Kalam.