India Aliens Stories Gandharvas: The classic Indian epics like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana as also the Puranas refer to many exotic tribes. These epics described them as superhuman or subhuman. These tribes have often been mixed with fiction and mythology while narrating about these tribes.

These Tribes Include:

Gandharvas, Yakshas, Kinnaras, Kimpurushas, Rakshasas, Nagas, Suparnas, Vanaras, Vidyadharas, Valikilyas, Pisachas, Devas. Among the Devas were the Vasus, Rudras, Maruts, Adityas and lastly Asuras which included Danavas, Daityas, and Kalakeyas.

From the standpoint of history, these exotic tribes were believed to be tribes that did not interact frequently with mainstream culture. As a result, the information about them was very limited. Hence, this stimulates the invention of fables about them.

These so-called Exotic tribes were also blessed with certain magic powers which included the following:

1. the ability to appear and disappear at will
2. The ability to fly in the air, with or without the use of an airborne vehicle
3. The knowledge of aircraft or vimana
4. The ability to change shape at will
5. The ability to read people’s minds
6. The knowledge of other inhabited planets like the Earth
7. The ability to influence natural forces

The ancient Hindu religious texts have described these tribes as having somewhat of a philosophical influence on Hindu culture. But they remained separate from said culture, possibly due to their geographic isolation from the rest of the world.

India Aliens Stories Gandharvas, Yakshas

The texts describe the base of these tribes’ as ranging from high mountains like the Yaksas and Rakshasas to deep forests like the Vanaras. They also referred to something which existed beyond the mainstream Indian civilization like in the case of the Devas and Asuras. These prevailed in the plains of Saraswati, Sindhu, and Ganges.

Gandharvas – Gandharvas were described as fierce warriors who could challenge even the great Kshatriya warriors. They were also skilled in art, music, and dance. Some Gandharva tribes were allied with the Devas and sometimes with Yakshas. They inhabited the land to the north of Kailasa, close to the Deva territories. Later they might have spread to the Saraswati river, as visualized by Balarama during his pilgrimage over Saraswati. The Ramayana mentioned a Gandharva kingdom named Sailusha near the mouth of the river Ganges.

Yakshas – The Yaksas were a tribe living in the area surrounding the Kailasa range of the Himalayas. Their king, Vaisravana or Kuvera, was a worshipper of Siva. Lord Siva’s abode is thought to be Kailasa.

According to Ramayan, Kubera rebuilt the kingdom of Lanka. This Lanka is the present day Srilanka and inhabited it with the Yaksa people. Subsequently, Kuber’s stepbrother Ravana took over Sri Lanka, upon their father’s request Kuber moved to the region near Kailasa mountain in the Himalayas.

Kinnaras – The Kinnaras were a tribe often spoken equally with the Gandharvas and Yakshas. The epic Mahabharata and the Puranas have described the regions north to the Himalayas as the abode of Kinnaras. Puranas mentioned about an Asura with a horse head, who was known as Hayagriva (which in Sanskrit means the horse-headed one).

This Asura was killed by an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu took the similar form of a horse headed human figure. This region was also the abode of a tribe of people called Kambojas. They were fierce warriors skilled in horse ride and horse warfare. Some of them were robber tribes who invaded village settlements. They raiding them using their skilled cavalry forces. The myth of Kinnaras probably came from these ferocious warrior tribes, who terrorized the Vedic settlements.

There is now a district named Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh which is thought to be the domain of the Kinnara tribes. People of this district call themselves as Kinnaur.

Kimpurushas– Kimpurushas were described to be lion-faced beings. They were often mentioned along with the Kinnaras and the other exotic tribes. Some Puranas consider Kinnaras and Kimpurushas. However, the Mahabharata contains passages where Kinnaras and Kimpurushas were considered as two separate groups.