Varāhamihira

Varāhamihira ( 505 – 587), also called Varāha or Mihira, was an ancient Indian astrologer, astronomer, and polymath who lived in Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh, India). He was born at Kapitba in a Brahmin family, in the Avanti region, roughly corresponding to modern-day Malwa (part of Madhya Pradesh, India), to Adityadasa. According to one of his own works, he was educated at Kapitthaka. The Indian tradition believes him to be one of the "Nine Jewels" (Navaratnas) of the court of ruler Yashodharman Vikramaditya of Malwa. However, this claim appears for the first time in a much later text and scholars consider this claim to be doubtful because neither Varahamihira and Vikramaditya lived in the same century nor did Varahamihira live in the same century as some of the other names in the "nine jewels" list such as the much older Kalidasa.

Varāhamihira's most notable works were the ''Brihat Samhita'', an encyclopedic, Quote: " ..the new temples and inconography, the science of architecture, the enormous encyclopedia the Brihat Samhita of Varahamihira .. work on architecture, temples, planetary motions, eclipses, timekeeping, astrology, seasons, cloud formation, rainfall, agriculture, mathematics, gemology, perfumes and many other topics. According to Varahamihira, in some verses he was merely summarizing earlier existing literature on astronomy, ''Shilpa Sastra'' and temple architecture, yet his presentation of different theories and models of design are among the earliest texts that have survived. The chapters of the ''Brihat Samhita'' and verses of Varahamihira were quoted by the Persian traveler and scholar Al Biruni.

Varāhamihira is also credited with writing several authoritative texts on astronomy and astrology. He learned the Greek language, and he praised the Greeks (''Yavanas'') in his text for being "well trained in the sciences", though impure in ritual order. Some scholars consider him to be the strong candidate as the one who understood and introduced the zodiac signs, predictive calculations for auspicious ceremonies and astrological computations.

Works

''Pancha-Siddhantika''

Varāhamihira's main work is the book ' (“Treatise on the Five Astronomical Canons”) dated , which gives us information about older Indian texts which are now lost. The work is a treatise on mathematical astronomy and it summarises five earlier astronomical treatises by five authors, namely the ''Surya Siddhanta'', ''Romaka Siddhanta'', ''Paulisa Siddhanta'', ''Vasishtha Siddhanta'' and ''Pitamaha Siddhanta''. It is a compendium of Vedanga Jyotisha as well as Hellenistic astronomy (withGreek, Egyptian and Roman elements). Varahamihira was the first one to mention that the Ayanāṃśa, or the shifting of the equinox, is 50.32 arc seconds per year.

: They he Indianshave 5 Siddhāntas:
:* Sūrya-Siddhānta, the ''siddhānta'' of the Sun, thought to be composed by deva, but actually composed by ''Mayasura'' also known as Mamuni Mayan as stated in the text itself.
:* ''Vasishtha-siddhānt''a, so called from one of the stars of the Great Bear, composed by Vishnucandra,
:* ''Paulisa-siddhānta'', so called from Paulisa from the city of Saintra composed by Paulisa.
:* ''Romaka-siddhānta'', so called from the Rūm composed by Śrīsheṇa.
:* ''Paitahama-siddhānta''.

''Brihat-Samhita''

Another important contribution of Varahamihira is the encyclopedic ''Brihat-Samhita''. Although the book is mostly about divination, it also includes a wide range of subjects other than divination. It covers wide-ranging subjects of human interest, including astronomy, planetary movements, eclipses, rainfall, clouds, architecture, growth of crops, manufacture of perfume, matrimony and domestic relations. The volume expounds on gemstone evaluation criterion found in the ''Garuda Purana'', and elaborates on the sacred Nine Pearls from the same text. It contains 106 chapters and is known as the "great compilation".

On Astrology

Hora Shastra or Brihadjathaka is a most acclaimed astrological work by Mihira. It is mostly in code language. More than a dozen commentaries have been written for this work. The Kerala School of Astrology is mainly based on the ''Brihadjathaka''.

His son ''Prithuyasas'' also contributed to Hindu astrology; his book '' Hora Sara'' is a famous book on horoscopy. Khana (also named Lilavati elsewhere), the medieval Bengali poet astrologer, is believed to be the daughter-in-law of Varahamihira.

Influences

The ''Romaka Siddhanta'' ("The Doctrine of the Romans") and the ''Paulisa Siddhanta'' were two works of Western origin which influenced Varahamihira's thought. The ''Pauliṣa Siddhānta'' is often mistakenly thought to be a single work and attributed to Paul of Alexandria (c. 378 CE). However, this notion has been rejected by other scholars in the field, notably by David Pingree who stated that "...the identification of Paulus Alexandrinus with the author of the ''Pauliṣa Siddhānta'' is totally false". A number of his writings share similarities with the earlier texts like '' Vedanga Jyotisha''.

A ''Bṛhat-Saṃhitā'' verse (adhyāya II, śloka 14), reads: म्लेच्छा हि यवनास्तेषु सम्यक् शास्त्रमिदं स्थितम् । ऋषिवत् तेऽपि पूज्यन्ते किं पुनर्दैवविद् द्विजः ॥, romanized as ''mlecchā hi yavanās teṣu samyak śāstram idaṃ sthitam, ṛṣivat te’pi pūjyante kiṃ punar daivavid dvijaḥ.'' (“The Yavanas are of low origin. When this science (''sic'') has come to stay with them and when such shastras are worshipped as sages, how much more should an astrologer of twice-born origin be?”) Brihat Samhita of Varaha Mihira
archive.org, Sanskrit with English translation by Panditabhushana V. Subrahmanya Sastri and Vidwan M. Ramakrishna Bhat. 1946: Bangalore. p. 19

A comment to that verse, quoting Garga, an earlier astronomer, says: "The Greeks, though barbaric, must be honoured since they have shown tremendous interest in our science..."

Contributions

;Trigonometry
Varahamihira improved the accuracy of the sine tables of Aryabhata.

;Combinatorics
He recorded the first known 4×4 magic square.

;Optics
Among Varahamihira's contribution to physics is his statement that reflection is caused by the back-scattering of particles and refraction (the change of direction of a light ray as it moves from one medium into another) by the ability of the particles to penetrate inner spaces of the material, much like fluids that move through porous objects.

See also

* Hora Sara
* List of Indian mathematicians

Notes

References

External links

The Brihat-samhita; complete translation by N. Chidambaram Iyer
Online edition with glossary

Various editions in English and Sanskrit. (PDF)
''The Brihat Jataka'' (1905)
(PDF) – archived from Wayback Machine

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varahamihir
505 births
587 deaths
6th-century Indian mathematicians
Medieval Indian astrologers
6th-century Indian astronomers
6th-century astrologers
6th-century Indian writers
Sanskrit writers