Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): D C Sirkar
Publisher: University of Calcutta

Page 86

IX VARĀHAMIHIRA AND BHADRABĀHU
Ajay Mitra Shastri, Nagpur University Varāhamihira is justly reckoned as a doyen of the astronomers and astrologers of ancient India. He surpassed all other fellow-workers in the field by composing standard works, both copious and abridged, on all the three branches of Jyotişa, viz., (i) tantra (mathematical astronomy), (ii) horā (horoscopy), and (iii) śäkhā or saṁhitā (natural astrology). Several of his writings have come down to us. Unfortunately we possess very meagre information regarding his life and times. From what he himself tells us we know that he was the son as well as a pupil of one Adityadāsa and a resident of Avanti and obtained a boon from the Sun-god at a place called Kāpitthaka.2 His Pañcasiddhāntikā (1.8) specifies the Saka year 427 (505 A. D.) which evidently has reference to the date of the composition of the work. We also have some evidence to indicate that he was a Sun-worshipping Maga Brāhmaṇa. His son Pșthuyaśas was also an astrologer and his work, Sațpañcāśikā, is still extant. '
Some late Jain writers narrate stories which seek to establish some relationship between Varāhamihira and Bhadrabāhu. Thus, the Prabandhacintāmaņi tells us that in the city of Pāțaliputra, there lived a Brāhmaṇa boy named Varāha who was, ever since his birth, devoted to the study of astrology. . But because of poverty he had to subsist by tending
1 These include the Brhatsaṁhitā, Brhajjätaka, Laghujātaka, Yogayātrā, Tikanikayātrā, Brhadyātrå, Pancasiddhāntikā and Vivāhapafala. Of these, the Brhadyātrā and Vivāhapatala still remain unpublished. For collection of the available fragments of the Samāsasaṁhitā, vide my paper in Bhār. Vid., Vol. XXIII, pp. 23-39.
2 Brhajjātaka, XXVIII.9.
3 For a full discussion of Varāhamihira's life, date and works, see A. M. Shastri, India as seen in the Brhatsaṁhită of Varāhamihira, Delhi, 1969, Ch. I.