Researchers using advanced AI-driven multispectral imaging have successfully deciphered a series of 8th-century Grantha script palimpsests recovered from the Lakshadweep Islands. The hidden layers of text contain fragments of lost Sanskrit treatises detailing sophisticated observations on deep-sea hydraulic pressure and its effects on submerged wooden structures. This find suggests that ancient Indian maritime engineers possessed a theoretical understanding of fluid mechanics that informed the construction of deep-water anchors and ship hulls.
The manuscripts, titled 'Sagara-Yantra-Vidhi', describe experiments conducted to measure the compression of materials at varying depths. According to the scholarly team at the Ancient India Research Journal, these texts represent some of the earliest known records of systematic oceanic physics. The AI project has been instrumental in separating the surface-level religious chants from the underlying scientific data, which had been obscured for over a thousand years due to the reuse of the palm-leaf folios.