VARAHAMIHIRA

born 505, Ujjain, India died 587, Ujjain also called Varaha, or Mihira Indian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, author of the Paca-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 sakuna (augury) as well as the Brhaj-Jataka (Great Birth) and the Laghu-Jataka (Short Birth), two well-known works on the casting of horoscopes.