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Varahamihira (c. 505-c. 558)
The famous astronomer Varahmihira, a contemporary of Vikramaditya and Kalidas, had been the author of Brhat-Samhita. Possibiy he was a resident of Ujjain. He too is counted among the nine jewels of the court of Vikramaditya. From his non-acquaintance with the theory of Earth revolving round the Sun, as propounded by Arya Bhatt, it appears clearly that he must have been belonging to an earlier period.
Brihat-Samhita
While Brihat-Samhita is largely devoted to astrology, is is a valuable source for history of Indian iconography.
Varahamihira also called VARAHA, or MIHIRA (b. 505, Ujjain, India--d. 587, Ujjain), Indian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, author of the Pańca-siddhantika ("Five Treatises"), a compendium of Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Indian astronomy. Varahamihira's knowledge of Western astronomy was thorough. In five sections, his monumental work progresses through native Indian astronomy and culminates in two treatises on Western astronomy, showing calculations based on Greek and Alexandrian reckoning and even giving complete Ptolemaic mathematical charts and tables. Although Varahamihira's writings give a comprehensive picture of 6th-century India, his real interest lay in astronomy and
astrology. He repeatedly emphasized the importance of astrology and wrote many treatises on shakuna (augury) as well as the Brhaj-Jataka ("Great Birth") and the Laghu-Jataka ("Short Birth"), two well-known works on the casting of horoscopes.
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