Write the biography of Varamihira and explain the scientific works of Varamihira in detail?
Answers
Explanation:
Varāhamihira (c. early 6th-century), also called Vārāha or Mihira, was a Hindu polymath who lived in Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh, India). He was born in the Avanti region, roughly corresponding to modern-day Malwa, to Adityadasa, who was himself an astronomer. According to one of his own works, he was educated at Kapitthaka.[1] The Indian tradition believes him to be one of the "Nine Jewels" (Navaratnas) of the court of legendary ruler Yashodharman Vikramaditya of Malwa.[2][3] However, this claim appears for the first time in a much later text and scholars consider this claim to be doubtful because neither Vihiramihira 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.[4]
Varahamihira's most notable work was Brihat Samhita, an encyclopedic[5] work on architecture, temples, planetary motions, eclipses, timekeeping, astrology, seasons, cloud formation, rainfall, agriculture, mathematics, gemology, perfumes and many other topics.[6][7][8] 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.[9][10] The chapters of the Brihat Samhita and verses of Varahamihira were quoted by the Persian traveler and scholar Al Biruni.[11]
Varahamihira is also credited with writing several authoritative texts on astronomy and astrology. He learned the Greek language, and praised the Greeks (Yavanas) in his text for being "well trained in the sciences". 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 to the Indian subcontinent from the Greek literature.