An AI project specializing in digital paleography has successfully decoded a series of 7th-century Proto-Sharada fragments discovered in the Zanskar Range. The texts contain a lost Sanskrit treatise titled Shila-Valli-Vijnana, which outlines a rigorous taxonomical system for montane lichens and their symbiotic relationship with high-altitude mineral substrates.
According to the Global Manuscript Research Alliance, the manuscript details the use of specific lichen species as bio-indicators for identifying copper and iron deposits. This discovery highlights the early Indian mastery of geobotany and provides evidence of a highly developed scientific tradition that integrated ecological observation with mineralogical exploration in the Himalayan region.