Colombo, July 19: The Sri Lanka government has issued an advertisement asking people to share documents about King Ravana - the villain of great Hindu epic Ramayana. The newspaper advertisement was issued by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Tourism and Aviation. The ministry requested people of the country to share any document or book related to Ravana which could help the government in carrying out research on the mythological king to prove that he was the first to use aircraft.

According to a report published in CNN News 18, Sri Lanka's Civil Aviation Authority launched an initiative to understand the methods used by Ravana to fly in ancient times as the country's government believes that he was the first aviator in the world and flew over 5,000 years ago. Civil Aviation Authority former vice-chairman Shashi Danatunge told the media house that the government had irrefutable facts to prove that Ravana was the pioneer and the first to fly using an aircraft. Twitterati Celebrates Ravana's Death Episode with Funny Memes and Jokes, and It Is Dussehra All over Again for the Fans of Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan.

"King Ravana was a genius. He was the first person to fly. He was an aviator. This is not mythology; it's a fact. There needs to be detailed research on this. In the next five years, we will prove this," reported CNN News 18 quoting Danatunge as saying. In 2019, a conference was held at Katunayake, the location where Sri Lanka's biggest international airport Bandaranaike is located.

The conference which was attended civil aviation experts, historians, archaeologists, scientists and geologists concluded that Ravana first flew from Sri Lanka to India around 5,000 years ago. Recently, Sri Lanka has also sent a satellite named "Ravana" to the outer space.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 19, 2020 06:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).