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would hardly be any ancient DNA material for revival,’ argued Radhika.
    ‘You are mistaken Inspector. Ancient civilisations knew more about stem cells than modern humans. Many Hindus would be intimately aware of a ritual that would be performed after childbirth for precisely this reason,’ said Chhedi.
    ‘Really? What ritual was that?’ asked Radhika.
    ‘After delivery, the midwife would take the umbilical cord of the new born child and place a small portion of it in an airtight copper capsule, and this capsule—known as a Taviju Raksha —would be tied below thewaist of the child until he grew up,’ explained Chhedi. ‘The remainder of the umbilical cord would be placed in an earthen jar and buried underground. Doesn’t it surprise you that modern civilisation has only just recently figured out that preserving stem cells from a child’s umbilical cord using cryo-freezing is a prudent step?’
    ‘So you think that the Tavija Rasksha ,’ replied Sir Khantrohttp://kailaibala.blogspot.in/ was not merely a religious ritual but a scientific one?’ asked Radhika.
    ‘The ancients knew far more about medicine than we’re willing to believe,’ replied Chhedi. ‘Vedic surgeons wrote about plastic surgery, extraction of cataracts, dental surgery, caesarean sections and bone-setting. Surgery—known as Shastrakarma in the Vedas—was pioneered in the Shushruta Samahita. Shushruta’s path-breaking treatise describes rhinoplasty in which a mutilated nose can be reconstructed through plastic surgery! The Charaka Samhita authored by Charaka discusses physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, immunity and even genetics. For example, Charaka knew the factors that determined the sex of a child. Why is it impossible to believe that the ancients knew of genetic cloning? Read between the lines, Inspector,’ said Chhedi.
    ‘Cloning? I don’t recall any mention of it in our epics?’ asked Radhika.
    ‘Think carefully. When Lord Rama fought with Ravana, was he fighting one demon with ten heads or was he actually fighting ten people who had been genetically cloned from Ravana?’ asked Chhedi.
    Radhika digested the information slowly. She visualised Ravana battling Lord Rama, with the latterlopping off the former’s head repeatedly, only to see it replaced by yet another. The geneticist wasn’t entirely wrong. It could indeed have been possible that Ravana had succeeded in cloning himself so that any enemy would have to fight not just one but ten Ravanas.
    ‘I assume that you’re familiar with the stories of Durga slaying various demons?’ asked Chhedi.
    ‘Some of them,’ said Radhika, chewing on an almond contentedly.
    ‘According to the eighth chapter of Devi Mahatmya from the Markandeya Puran, there lived a demon by the name of Raktabija. You do understand what Raktabija means, don’t you? It translates to blood seed. The story about Raktabija was that each time a drop of his blood fell to the earth, a new duplicate of himself would emerge. He was eventually killed by Durga. She succeeded in killing him by preventing his blood from reaching the ground. Isn’t this yet another example of our ancient myths telling us about deeper scientific advances?’ asked Chhedi.
    Radhika was reeling from the onslaught of information.
    ‘Our mythology tells us that Brahama took birth from the umbilicus of Vishnu. Was this just imagination or was it indicative of the fact that Vedic people knew of the presence and significance of stem cells in the umbilical cord?’ asked Chhedi.
    Greeted by silence, Chhedi asked, ‘We know that Krishna’s elder brother—Balarama—was transferred from Devaki’s womb to that of Rohini. How would that have been possible without knowledge of in vitro fertilisation?’
    Unknown to Radhika and non-academics, Chhedi had written a paper in which he had referenced the Vishnu Purana. It also said that Hari in the form of Brahama was the instrumental cause of creation. It was said that