Kyle Harper

The plague is definitely in India in the 17th century.

Yeah.

And we know that from contemporary written records that are pretty unambiguous about the presence of the disease.

Right.

What we don't know is was it there before that?

And if not, why not?

Because it kind of actually seems like it's not, at least not in this like same explosive way.

And that's pretty curious.

Like we don't have a great explanation of that because –

India is connected to the Central Asian world where the plague is endemic.

There's plenty of trade.

It would have plenty of chance to move to the subcontinent.

So we don't understand that.

And then if you go back even further – that's the Black Death.

You go back even further to the late antique period –

We – it's like a total mystery and the Indian sources from the – even the 5th and the 6th century are not great.

They're hard to use.

This is totally outside my language abilities.

They require totally different expertise.

I've worked with some people who think that they're like –