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AI-Assisted Decipherment of 8th-Century 'Sharada' Script Fragments from the Karakoram Range Unveils Lost Sanskrit Treatises on Theoretical Fluid Dynamics

📅 April 8, 2026 📰 Antiquity Research
AI-Assisted Decipherment of 8th-Century 'Sharada' Script Fragments from the Karakoram Range Unveils Lost Sanskrit Treatises on Theoretical Fluid Dynamics

In a breakthrough for classical philology, an AI-driven project has successfully deciphered a series of Sharada script palimpsests discovered in a high-altitude rock shelter in the Karakoram Range. The fragments contain a previously unknown Sanskrit treatise titled 'Dravya-Gati-Vijnana', which details systematic observations on the laminar flow of water and the physics of fluid drag through narrow apertures.

The text outlines protocols for designing 'energy-dissipating' sluice gates for high-altitude irrigation, using mathematical ratios that mirror modern principles of fluid mechanics. This research, published by Antiquity Research, highlights a lost tradition of experimental physics in ancient India where empirical observations of water behavior were codified into rigorous mathematical sets for engineering large-scale Himalayan hydraulic works.

Original source: Antiquity Research