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| Varahamihira |
Varahamihira - Who discoverd Gravity before Newton
Varahamihira – Indian Sage Who Predicted Water Discovery on Mars 1500 Years Ago.
Varahamihira: An ancient Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer, Varahamihira’s main work was a treatise on mathematical astronomy that summarised earlier astronomical treatises.
Born around 500 CE in the Avanti region to an astronomer called Adityadasa, Varahamihira is a Hindu polymath. He was known to be one of the 9 jewels in the court of Yashodharam Vikramaditya of Malwa, who was famous in central India during the 6th century. Varahamihira belonged from Ujjain, which during the Gupta Period (320 to 550 AD), was a flourishing centre of knowledge with several schools of science, culture and art.
Also known as Varaha and Mihira, the brilliance of Varahamihira was even more popular than his other contemporaries such as Aryabhata and Brahmagupta, the first of the major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and astronomers.
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| Varahamihira |
Works of Varahamihira
Varahamihira made great contributions not only in the field of mathematics; he was also an astrologer and is considered among the greatest Acharyas of modern astrology. Varahamihira’s son Prithuyasas also contributed to Hindu astrology and his book Hora Sora is a famous book on horoscopy. Listed below are some of the important works of Varahamihira.
Pancha- Siddhantika: Also known as the Treatise on the Five Astronomical Canons dated 575 AD it now gives us information about older lost Indian texts. The book of Pancha-Siddhantika is one of the main works by Varahamihira. The work is a treatise on mathematical astronomy and it summarises 5 earlier astronomical treatises, namely the Surya, Romaka, Paulisa, Vasishtha, and Paitamaha Siddhantas. It is a compendium of Vedanga Jyotisha as well as Hellenistic astronomy including Greek and Roman elements. The five siddhantas are elaborated below-
• Surya Siddhanta, which is the Siddhantika of the Sun was actually composed by the ancient asura king Mayasura, who was also known as Mamuni Mayan as stated in the text by Varahamihira.
- Vasishtha Siddhanta, which is so-called from one of the stars of the Great Bear, was composed by Vishnucandra.
- Paulisa Siddhanta was taken from Pulisa which is supposed to be from Alexandria and was composed by Pulisa.
- Romaka Siddhanta was the Doctrine of the Romans, which is the subject of the Roman Empire and was composed by Srishena. And lastly, there is the Patiamaha Siddhanta.
Brihat- Samhita: Varahamihira's most notable work, the Brihat- Samhita is an encyclopedic work, mostly about divination but also includes work on architecture, temples, planetary motions, eclipses, timekeeping, astrology, seasons, cloud formation, rainfall, agriculture, mathematics, gemology, perfumes, and many other topics. The volume expounds on the 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".
Contributions of Varahamihira
Varahamihira contributed to trigonometry and improved the accuracy of the sine tables of Aryabhata. Varahamihira was also among the first mathematicians to discover a version of what is now known as Pascal's triangle. He used it to calculate the binomial coefficients and recorded the first known 4*4 magic square. Among Varahamihira's contributions to physics is his statement that reflection is caused by the back-scattering of particles and refraction (which is the change of direction of a light ray as it moves from one medium into another) by the ability of the particles to penetrate the inner spaces of the material, much like fluids that move through porous objects.
Varahamihira’s compositions give a complete picture of the 6th century India. He continually emphasized the importance of astrology and wrote many theses on omens, the great birth which is the Brihaj Jataka, and the short birth which is the Laghu Jataka. These two are the well-known works of Varahamihira on the casting of horoscopes.
Surya Siddhanta & description on planet Mars:
Pancha Siddhantika includes Surya Siddhanta, an astronomical treatise that explains or determines the true motions of the luminaries. Under this work, Varahamihira has also explained the estimated diameters of the planets, like Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.
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, the 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.
Surya Siddhanta mentioned Mars’s diameter (which was calculated to be 3,772 miles has an error within 11% of the currently accepted diameter of 4,218 miles), circumference and also carries calculations on and about solar eclipses and lunar eclipses, its color and portion of the moon as well.
Apart from these, Varahamihira also predicted the presence of water on Mars. The book had a detailed description of the planet Mars. He had said in his book that the planet Mars has both water and iron present on its surface, which has now been revealed by NASA and ISRO.
He was the first to mention and explain how each planet in the solar system has been created by and centered on the sun.
It’s intriguing to know that during NASA’s Mars mission, Arun Upadhyay, a retired IPS, did a comparative study of Varāhamihira’s calculations about Mars and found certain similarities.
Though the original book of Surya Siddhanta till date remains untraced, but somehow a few scholars have taken their notes for their own research work. Many fear that the original version was stolen by the other astronomers from overseas. The present version of Surya Siddhanta, which is often used by Panchang experts to predict festive dates and nakshatras, was modified by Bhaskaracharya during the Middle Ages.
It is learned, that Varahamihira humbly said about his own treatises: “The science of Astrology is a vast ocean and is not easy for everyone to cross it. My treatises provide a safe boat.” Truly, even now they are acknowledged as masterpieces.
