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Meeting the challenge to decode a 400-yr-old DNA
LUCKNOW: Addressing the nation through a radio programme ‘Mann ki Baat’ on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared how Indian researchers uncovered the relics of a 16th-century Georgian queen, Ketevan the Martyr, from St Augustine Church in Goa in 2005 and how external affairs minister S Jaishankar permanently handed over the relic to the government of Georgia and its people in a recent programme
LUCKNOW: Addressing the nation through a radio programme ‘Mann ki Baat’ on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared how Indian researchers uncovered the relics of a 16th-century Georgian queen, Ketevan the Martyr, from St Augustine Church in Goa in 2005 and how external affairs minister S Jaishankar permanently handed over the relic to the government of Georgia and its people in a recent programme.
Sunday’s ‘Mann ki Baat’, however, acted as no less than a time machine for Neeraj Rai, a senior scientist and group head at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow. He was the man who unravelled the mystery of the 400-year-old relic (in the form of a bone) lying buried in the ruins of St Augustine church in Goa and confirmed that it was of Ketevan, the queen of Kakheti, Georgia, who was murdered at Shiraz in Iran in 1624 and earned the title of ‘martyr’ because it is believed she gave up her life defending the Christian faith and refused to convert to Islam, even after prolonged torture. However, after her death, Ketevan was canonised as a saint by the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Neeraj Rai, the BSIP scientist, said Sunday’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ took him almost 22 years back when the mystery of the Georgian queen’s relic came under international spotlight and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) began its excavation in the ruins of St Augustine church in Goa. “I remember the time when I heard that the ASI had started excavation work to find the queen’s relic. It was fascinating and I always wanted to be a part of the discovery. At that time, I never thought that I would be the one to carry out its DNA analysis,” said Neeraj.
However, after years of excavation work, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) eventually found the relic that was in the form of a bone. But the problem was that instead of one, they found three bones and now the question arose as to which one was of the queen.
“We made the discovery in 2004-05. While excavating at around 8 to 10 metres deep in the ruins of St Augustine church, Goa, mentioned in literary evidence, we found three bones. Now the question was which one belonged to the queen,” said Dr Abhijit Ambekar, one of the archaeologists in the excavation team.
BSIP scientist Neeraj Rai, who was a PhD student at the time with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), took the subject as his PhD topic. “I started working on the relic in 2012 and started with DNA analysis,” said Neeraj.
Prior to Rai, a few more researchers and scientists tried to decode the mystery but failed to extract the DNA from the holy relic. “The biggest challenge before me was to find out which was the queen’s bone. Initially, we tried to match the DNA samples with around 22,000 samples of the people of India that are in our data base. It was found that two bones matched with samples, but one didn’t match at all,” recollected Neeraj.
However, he and his team then got 30 samples from Georgia and found the match. “Of the 30 samples which we brought from Georgia, two DNA samples from the people of Georgia matched with one of the three bones. Not only this, but we also tried to find out the gender of the person to whom the bone belonged. And it was found that this bone belonged to a woman, while the other two were of men. Hence, going by literary evidence and DNA analysis, we confirmed that the relic belonged to queen Ketevan,” Neeraj added.
Along with Neeraj Rai, Dr Thangraj, director, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnosis (CDFD) and professor Gyaneshwar Chaube, professor, zoology, BHU were also a part of the DNA analysis team.
How did the bone come to Goa from Iran?
According to literary evidence, in 1613 the emperor of Persia Shah Abbas I led an army to conquer the Georgian kingdom of Kakheti. King of Kakheti Teimouraz paid tribute to the emperor but maintained autonomy and the Christian orthodox religion. Since the emperor’s army was immense, the Georgians sued for peace. They sent the king’s mother, Queen Ketevan and her two sons to negotiate for peace. The emperor sent them back to the Georgian camp but half way, he had them arrested and taken in chains to Shiraz, the then Persian capital. Ketevan was told to convert to Islam but on resisting she was tortured and finally strangled to death on September 22, 1624. Four months later, a Friar named Ambrosio dos Anjos unearthed her body amid great secrecy and sent it to the Augustinian convent in Aspaan, further south in Persia.
Around February, another Friar Manuel Madre de Deus came to Goa with the right hand and part of the right arm of the Queen. This is how the bone came to Goa.
Ambrosio dos Anjos took the main share of her relics to Georgia.
