Examining a 4,000-year-old skeleton excavated a decade ago in Mewar from a curious stone enclosure filled with ash, scientists recently unearthed evidence of the chronic infectious disease in its bone lesions, sparking speculation about the Indus people’s understanding of leprosy

How does one determine that a skeleton that is 4,000 years old is that of a leper? Through scientific technique, of course. But in the case of this skeleton, excavated 10 years ago during the archaeological investigations at Balathal in the Mewar region of Rajasthan, it was not just science but also human culture that played an important role in the discovery. For unlike the other skeletons discovered at the same time at the site, this one had been treated differently. The leper’s skeleton was interred within a large stone enclosure that had been filled with vitrified ash from burned cow dung, the most sacred and purifying of substances in Vedic tradition.

Burial is uncommon in the Hindu tradition unless the person is highly respected or unfit to be cremated, a category that included outcasts, pregnant women, small children, victims of magic or curses, and lepers. The bone lesions on the skeletons, when studied, finally gave enough evidence of the fact that the skeleton, that now lies interned in the Deccan College in Pune, belonged to the last category. With that, what has been also unveiled is the evidence of the earliest case of leprosy found anywhere in the world.

The findings were recently published in the prestigious online journal PlosOne by research scientist Gwen Robbins of the Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, United States of America, along with her colleagues Veena Mushrif-Tripathy, V.N. Misra, R.K. Mohanty, V.S. Shinde, Kelsey M. Gray and Malcolm D. Schug. Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae that affects almost 250,000 people worldwide.

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