Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Studies have successfully utilized a new neural-mapping algorithm to decipher a cache of highly weathered 7th-century Kadamba-Brahmi stone inscriptions found in the Western Ghats. The texts contain lost Sanskrit treatises detailing the systematic cultivation and classification of subterranean fungi. These manuscripts provide the earliest known scientific evidence of ancient Indian protocols for identifying mycorrhizal relationships between specific forest trees and medicinal truffles.
The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science on April 11, 2026, highlights the precision of early botanical observations. The inscriptions describe methods for assessing soil nutrient density and the role of fungal networks in forest health, concepts that parallel modern forest ecology. This breakthrough demonstrates that the Kadamba dynasty scholars possessed a sophisticated understanding of non-flowering flora centuries before the formalization of modern mycology.