That "excerpt" doesn't appear in any version of the Mahabharata that I can find. Seems to have been pieced together from the various books by/for UFO conspiracy theorists. Here's a few lines I've found from another translation.
Charged with all the power of the Universe.
An incandescent column of smoke and flame
As bright as the thousand suns
Rose in all its splendour...
Book 8: Karna Parva, Section 34
"Then He called Nila Rohita (Blue and Red or smoke)that terrible deity robed in skins,looking like 10,000 Suns, and shrouded by the fire of superabundant Energy, blazed up with splendour."
...
An iron thunderbolt,
A gigantic messenger of death,
Which reduced to ashes
The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.
Book 16: Mausala Parva, Section 1
"When the next day came, Samva actually brought forth an iron bolt through which all the individuals in the race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas became consumed into ashes. Indeed, for the destruction of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas, Samva brought forth, through that curse, a fierce iron bolt that looked like a gigantic messenger of death."
...
The hair and nails fell out;
Pottery broke without apparent cause,
And the birds turned white.
Book 16: Mausala Parva, Section 2
"The streets swarmed with rats and mice. Earthen pots showed cracks or broke from no apparent cause. At night, the rats and mice ate away the hair and nails of slumbering men. Sarikas chirped, sitting within the houses of the Vrishnis. The noise made by those birds ceased not for even a short while by day or by night. The Sarashas were heard to imitate the hooting of the owl, and goats imitated the cries, O Bharata, of jackals. Many birds appeared, impelled by Death, that were pale of complexion but that had legs red of hue."
Translation from
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/index.htm
But anyway, back to the ark... If technology really was advanced back then, why build the ark from wood and pitch? Genesis doesn't suggest anything more advanced than that.
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