The ancient Indian epics of the Mahaabhaarat and the Raamaayan describe many “fascinating” machines, weapons, commodities that can easily be identified with our contemporary gadgets. Indians are told/read these epics as history and not as myths. So the concept of technologically advanced civilisations existing in ancient times is not unfamiliar to Indians. Raamaayan has a passage that talks about spaceship and how the “outer space” looks from it. Mahaabhaarat describes “brahmaastra” which can easily be identified as nuclear missile from the peculiar description of its aftermath. Mahaabhaarat is full of examples of genetic mutation, test-tube babies, CCTVs, IVF and many such modern scientific feats.

So just because we do not see anything around us similar to a given ancient incident doesn’t mean that its a flight of fancy. Mostly it just means that we haven’t yet advanced (scientifically and socially) enough to attain that ability.