Varahamihira: the Brihat Jataka, the Brihat Samhita and the Panchasiddhantika · Chapter 16 of 22 · Part Three · The Brihat Samhita
The astronomer and the sky
Brihat Samhita, chapters 1–20
The Brihat Samhita ("great compendium") is Varahamihira's largest work: 106 chapters on the sky, the weather, omens, the land, building, the arts and daily life. Part Three of this book surveys it in his own order. This first chapter covers chapters 1–20, on the sky.
Chapter 1: content, not authority
Varahamihira opens with a prayer to the Sun and a statement of method: "Having correctly examined the substance of the voluminous works of the sages of the past, I attempt to write a clear treatise neither too long nor too short" (1.2). Then a striking argument:
What means the notion that the works of the rishis are sound and not so the works of men? In cases where the matter refers to no mantra, what is there to choose between, when the meaning is the same because the words are different? (1.3)
If a sage and an ordinary man say the same thing in different words, the statement is equally true; truth does not depend on who says it. He gives an example of a rule stated both by Brahma and by a human author (1.4).
He mentions the different views of the world's origin — from prakriti (Kapila), from atoms (Kanada), from time, from nature, from karma — and declines to discuss them because the subject is too vast (1.7–8). And he states the three branches of Jyotisha: astronomy (tantra), horoscopy (hora) and samhita (1.9).
Chapter 2: the ideal astronomer
Chapter 2 describes the qualifications of the true jyotishaka. He must be truthful, "without jealousy", eloquent, able to answer objections "in clear and distinct language" and to explain the science "in its purity", like gold tested by touchstone, fire and hammer. He must know the five siddhantas, all the units of time, the calendar, the planets' motions, the calculation of eclipses — and, when the books disagree, "calculate correctly the places of the Sun and planets by actual observation" with instruments (chapter 2). He must also know horoscopy and the whole samhita. The chapter ends with Garga's praise: a king without an astrologer "gropes his way in the dark" (2, Garga's verses 7–9).
Chapter 3: the moving solstices
At one time, the Sun's southward course commenced on his reaching the middle of Ashlesha and its northward course on its reaching the beginning of Dhanishta. This must have been the case as we find it so recorded in ancient books. Whereas at present the one course of the Sun commences at the beginning of Cancer, and the other at the beginning of Capricorn. That it is so, and different from what it was at one time, can easily be ascertained from actual observation (3.1–2).
The "ancient books" are the Vedanga Jyotisha's statement of the solstices. Varahamihira notices that the solstices have moved — the effect we call precession — and says it can be checked by observing where the Sun rises, or the tip of a gnomon's shadow (3.3). Then come the Sun's omens for the world, and the dark spots on the Sun — sunspots — called ketus, "thirty-three in number" (3.7).
Chapters 4 and 5: the Moon and the eclipses
Chapter 4 describes the Moon: its phases from sunlight, its horns, and their omens.
Chapter 5 is the famous chapter on Rahu. Varahamihira sets out the myths (5.1–3), asks pointed questions (5.4–7), and answers:
The truth is that in her own eclipse, the Moon enters the shadow of the Earth, and in that of the Sun, [the Moon covers] the solar disc (5.8). ... Thus the causes of the eclipses have been stated by learned astronomers; that Rahu does not cause the eclipses is the truth of the shastras (5.13).
He explains the different appearance of lunar and solar eclipses (5.9–12), rejects two popular methods of predicting eclipses (5.17), and refers to his astronomy for the calculation (5.18). Then he gives the traditional omens of eclipses for kingdoms (5.19 onward).
Chapters 6–10: the planets
Each planet has a chapter: Mars (6), Mercury (7), Jupiter (8), Venus (9), Saturn (10) — their colours, paths among the nakshatras, risings and settings, and what they portend for countries, crops and rulers.
Jupiter's years (8): Jupiter takes about twelve years to go round the zodiac, and each year is named from the nakshatra in which it reappears after its conjunction with the Sun, using the names of the lunar months: Kartika, Margashirsha and so on (8.1–2). The chapter also describes the sixty-year cycle (samvatsara) of named years, still used in Indian calendars.
Chapter 11: comets
"Having examined the treatises of Garga, Parashara, Asita, Devala and many others on ketus, I now proceed to give a clear account of the same" (11.1). Ketus are "luminous appearances resembling fire but without the power to consume" (11.3) — comets and other lights in the sky — described by shape and colour with their omens.
Chapters 12 and 13: Canopus and the Seven Sages
Chapter 12 describes the heliacal rising of Canopus (Agastya), the bright southern star, and the rites at its rising. Iyer's notes record the commentator rejecting one older claim about its rising because it is "opposed to actual observation".
Chapter 13 describes the Seven Sages (the Great Bear), "a garland of white lotus to lady North", circling the pole star, following "the views of Vriddha Garga" (13.1–2). It gives the traditional motion of the Sages through the nakshatras, a hundred years in each (13.4), and dates the reign of Yudhishthira by it (13.3, a verse partly damaged in the scan); Arundhati, the faithful wife of Vasishtha, is the small star beside him (13.4–5). The Great Bear does not in fact move through the nakshatras; this is a traditional chronology, not an observation.
Chapter 14: the map of India in the stars
The "division of the tortoise" (kurma vibhaga) assigns the regions and peoples of India to groups of nakshatras, arranged like a tortoise over the land. It is a sixth-century map of the subcontinent and one of the most important sources for its historical geography.
Chapters 15–20: nakshatras, planets and their meetings
- Chapter 15: the nakshatras and the peoples and things each governs.
- Chapter 16: the planets and the lands and things each governs.
- Chapter 17: planetary conjunctions and wars. "Astronomers are able to predict by calculation beforehand the times and nature of planetary conjunctions" (17.1); the planets' orbits "lie one above the other", and only seem to be on one surface from our distance (17.2). Four kinds of conjunction are named by closeness (17.3).
- Chapter 18: the Moon's conjunctions with the planets.
- Chapter 19: the planet ruling the year, month and day, and its effect on the season (19.1 onward).
- Chapter 20: meetings of several planets.
Summary
- Varahamihira judges a teaching by its content, not its author (1.3–4), and describes the ideal astronomer as truthful, clear and ready to settle disputes by observation (2).
- He observes that the solstices have moved since the ancient books (3.1–3) — precession — and mentions sunspots (3.7).
- Eclipses are caused by the Earth's shadow and the Moon, not by Rahu (5.8–13).
- Chapters 6–20 cover the planets, Jupiter's years (8), comets (11), Canopus (12), the Seven Sages (13), the map of India (14), and conjunctions, which astronomers predict by calculation (17).
Exercises
- What argument does Varahamihira make about the works of sages and of ordinary men?
- What change in the sky does he describe in 3.1–2, and how can it be checked?
- What does he say causes eclipses?
- How are Jupiter's years named?
- What is the "division of the tortoise"?
Answers: 1. That if they say the same thing, there is nothing to choose between them; truth does not depend on who says it (1.3). 2. That the solstices have moved from mid-Ashlesha and Dhanishta to the start of Cancer and Capricorn; by observing the Sun's rising point or the gnomon's shadow (3.1–3). 3. The Earth's shadow for lunar eclipses and the Moon's disc for solar eclipses (5.8). 4. From the nakshatra in which Jupiter reappears after conjunction with the Sun, with the names of the lunar months (8.1–2). 5. A map assigning the regions of India to groups of nakshatras (14).