Nearly undamaged Bhagavad Gita surfaces from charred wreckage at Air India accident location.

Amidst the ruins of the Air India Flight 171 disaster in Ahmedabad that resulted in 265 fatalities, a nearly unharmed version of the Bhagavad Gita was discovered. In spite of the fierce flames, the sacred text stayed mostly unscathed.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner, serving as Flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed soon after take-off on Thursday, resulting in the deaths of 241 individuals onboard. Only one person on the plane survived the accident. Debris from the wreckage fell onto a heavily populated region, striking directly into the dormitory of a nearby medical school. In addition to the 241 individuals aboard the flight, 24 more who were at the medical college hostel where the plane crashed also perished.

Amidst the burning ruins, a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, the revered Hindu text, was found among the rubble.

Union Minister Amit Shah, who went to the crash site on Thursday, stated that attempts to rescue individuals from the accident were unsuccessful as temperatures soared to extreme heights because of the combustion of 1.25 lakh litres of fuel on the plane.

The Bhagavad Gita was nearly unscathed despite the fierce fire that destroyed much of the plane and other items on board. The pages of the sacred text seemed unharmed, with its writing and illustrations easily readable. The jacketed cover, however, exhibited visible signs of damage.

“Maybe it belonged to a passenger… someone must have been reading it. That’s why it’s here. Despite the intense heat, it remained intact. Every single picture, including that of Swami Prabhupada (the founder of ISKCON) is still exactly the same,” a rescue personnel at the crash site said .