An international team of computational linguists has successfully used a new multispectral AI model to decipher 7th-century Proto-Grantha palimpsests recovered from a temple vault in Tamil Nadu. The hidden layers of the manuscript reveal lost Sanskrit treatises detailing advanced hydrological engineering, including the construction of subsurface porous dams and stone-filtered cisterns.
These texts provide the first technical documentation of how Early Medieval kingdoms managed groundwater in drought-prone regions. The manuscripts describe the use of specific mineral binders and organic resins to create waterproof seals, indicating a highly developed understanding of chemical properties in structural engineering during the Pallava period.