Born in the year 499 in a small village Kapitha in Ujjain, Varāhamihira was a master mathematician and a astrologer. His father Adityadas was a great worshipper of sun. The first grantha (text) written by Varāhamihira was the ‘Surya Siddhanta’ in 1515. Find out the revelations in his book in the next slide.

 

The book gave the locations of several stars other than the lunar nakshatras (constellations) and the calculation of solar eclipses. The book also had a significant coverage on kinds of time, length of the year of gods and demons, day and night of god Brahma, the elapsed period since creation, how planets move eastwards and sidereal revolution. The book also mentioned the Earth’s diameter and circumference along with Eclipses and color of the eclipsed portion of the moon.

 

The book also had a detailed description on planet Mars. He had said in his book that water and iron are both present on Mars, which have now been revealed by NASA and ISRO. He had also wriiten in this book about how each planet in the solar system has been created by the sun. 

 

This important book from the ancient times has apparently been stolen now. However, there are some experts who had recorded Varāhamihira’s research work, carried the research forward. The recorded research work has been translated into many languages as well. During NASA’s Mars mission, retired IPS, Arun Upadhyay did a comparative study of Varāhamihira’s calculations about Mars. He also wrote a book on the same subject. 

 

Since Varāhamihira was also an astrologer, he wrote on all the three main branches of Jyotisha astrology: Brihat Jataka, Laghu Jataka, Samasa Samhita, Brihat Yogayatra, Yoga Yatra, Brihat Vivaha Patal, Lagna Varahi, Kutuhala Manjari and Daivajna Vallabha.

 

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 poetess astrologer, is believed to be the daughter-in-law of Varahamihira.