Researchers at the Heritage Science Today project have announced the successful decipherment of fragmented birch-bark scrolls recovered from a high-altitude cave in the Dras Valley. Using an advanced neural network trained on Sharada script variants, the team identified the texts as lost treatises on 'theoretical geobotany'—the study of plant species as indicators of subterranean mineral deposits.
The manuscripts, dated to the 7th century, detail the systematic observation of specific flora that thrive near copper and gold veins. These Sanskrit texts provide a rigorous classification of 'indicator plants,' suggesting that ancient Indian prospectors used sophisticated botanical surveys to guide their mining operations in the Himalayan foothills.
The AI project also revealed sections of the text discussing soil-thermal conductivity and its effect on plant growth cycles. This discovery highlights the interdisciplinary nature of ancient Indian science, where botany, geology, and chemistry were integrated into a practical framework for resource management.