Person · astronomer · India
Varāhamihira
Also known as Varahamihira at Ujjain
The 6-century astronomer and polymath Varahamihira (c.505-587 CE), court astrologer under the Gupta emperor Chandragupta Vikramaditya at Ujjain. His Pancha Siddhantika (Five Astronomical Treatises, c.575 CE) critically compiled and compared five earlier astronomical schools (Paulisha, Romaka, Vashishtha, Saura and Paitamaha) — making Varahamihira the key documentary source for lost Gupta-period astronomical traditions. His Brhat Samhita (Great Compendium, c.550) is an encyclopedic treatment of astronomy, meteorology, geography, agriculture, botany, zoology, architecture, gemology and omen literature. His Brhat Jataka established the foundational framework of medieval Indian astrology. Varahamihira was one of the Navaratna (nine jewels) at Chandragupta II's court. His works were extensively translated into Arabic during the Abbasid period.
- Date
- 505–587
- Function
- Science & medicine
- Patron dynasty
- Aulikara/Gupta-era Malwa
- Condition
- historical person
- Confidence
- Established / referenced — established association
- Location
- 23.180, 75.780
About the place
Placed at Ujjain, the observatory city and reference meridian of Indian astronomy, with which his Brhat Samhita and Pancha-siddhantika are traditionally associated.
Connections (2)
- Ujjain astronomical traditionBhāskara II
Varahamihira in the sixth century and Bhaskara II in the twelfth are six hundred years apart and both worked at Ujjain, which held an astronomical establishment continuously across that whole span — the institutional continuity is the point rather than any personal link. Brahmagupta's tradition, the prime meridian, the observatory Jai Singh later rebuilt there: Ujjain is the one place in Indian science with an unbroken record of that length.
- Teaching lineageUjjain / Avantikā
Ujjain was the prime meridian of Indian astronomy and Varahamihira's seat, and al-Biruni read the Panchasiddhantika and the Brahmasphutasiddhanta closely enough to correct them. He is the channel by which siddhantic astronomy was argued with rather than merely borrowed — he names his sources, states where he thinks they are wrong, and says which he could not obtain.
On these journeys
Sources
Brhat Samhita; MacTutor and histories of Indian astronomy.
Open Varāhamihira in the repository →