A collaborative project between linguistic researchers and AI specialists at PLOS ONE has successfully reconstructed fragmented birch-bark scrolls found in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. The scrolls contain a previously unknown 6th-century Sanskrit text titled Gaja-Chikitsa, which details advanced surgical and pharmacological protocols for the care of elephants.
Using deep-learning models to fill in lacunae in the Late Brahmi script, researchers discovered descriptions of specialized cauterization tools and herbal compounds used to treat respiratory infections in livestock. This finding highlights the depth of ancient Indian veterinary science and the systematic classification of animal diseases in the early medieval period.