A rare palm-leaf manuscript titled 'Bhuloka-Vigyan' has been discovered in a private collection in Odisha's Ganjam district. The text, dated to approximately 1150 CE, provides a sophisticated mathematical framework for calculating the curvature of the Earth and its circumference with remarkable accuracy, using geometric principles previously thought to have emerged much later in European science.
Researchers from the National Institute of Manuscriptology state that the treatise utilizes a series of trigonometric functions to account for atmospheric refraction when measuring the horizon. The discovery suggests that Sanatan scientific traditions in the medieval period maintained a rigorous empirical approach to geodesy and planetary modeling, extending well beyond basic observational astronomy.