ANCIENT
ROBOT
LEGENDS
You might think robots are only a topic of the present and future. But even ancient mythology preserves stories about self-moving machines. From giant warriors to entertainers who sang and danced, people of many cultures have been telling the legends of awe-inspiring automatons for thousands of years.
The Robot Guardians
An ancient Hindu text tells the legend of a kingdom called Roma-visaya. In this place lived builders who created machines that farmed, traded, and even caught criminals! To historians today, these machines sound a lot like robots. As the story goes, the builders were forbidden to tell the secrets of how they made their robots. If they did, the robots would capture them!
Historians believe Roma-visaya was in the Mediterranean and referred to the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome.
Rumors of these incredible machines spread east to India. An Indian crafter heard the stories and longed to know more. He eventually reached Roma-visaya and married the daughter of the master robot builder to learn his secrets.
He stole the instructions of how to build the robots but kept them hidden, scared the robots would capture him. Many years later, his son brought the instructions back to India.
The Indian ruler, King Ajatashatru, heard about the secret instructions and came up with a plan. At that time, the king was in charge of protecting the relics—or holy objects—of Buddha, a famous religious teacher. To keep the relics safe, the king hid them in a secret chamber underground.
Traditionally, giant warrior statues would guard important things like these relics. But the king had a wondrous idea: he would create huge mechanical warriors to protect the relics.
The king paid the crafter’s son to build these legendary robot guards out of wood. He called them the Bhuta Vahana Yantra, or “Spirit Movement Machines.”
They would stand guard until a future ruler came to deliver the relics throughout the land.
Two hundred years later, a ruler named Emperor Asoka went searching for the underground relics. He found the ferocious warriors who guarded them, and an epic battle took place! After Asoka defeated the robots, he learned how to control them. The emperor finally spread Buddha’s relics across the land.
Yan Shi's Dancing Robot
In an ancient Chinese myth, an engineer named Yan Shi built a robot, which looked just like a human. He brought his robot to the king, where it danced, sang, and even winked at the ladies of the court!
The myth comes from a text called the Liezi, which was written over 2,000 years ago.
The king became frightened and angry. He didn’t believe it was a machine but a real person. Yan Shi was scared the king would take his anger out on him and began taking the robot apart.
The machine lay open for all to see, revealing the parts that a human would have, only it all was made out of leather and wood. The king inspected it for himself to
make certain. Sure enough, when he took away the heart, the mouth couldn’t speak anymore. When he removed the liver, the robot’s eyes stopped seeing. When he took the kidneys, the legs no longer moved.
The king was shocked and delighted at such an invention! He was so pleased, he brought Yan Shi and his robot to live in his grand palace.
For over a thousand years, people have been dreaming up stories of artificial beings. These legends of human-like machines have fascinated historians for centuries.