Varahamihira

You remember that one kid from school who was a topper in all subjects?

In our Bharatiya history, one such polymath who mastered & contributed to dozens of fields was Varahamihira & here’s his story.

Mihira was born in present-day Madhya Pradesh in the 6th century during India’s Renaissance under the Gupta Empire.

His family worshipped Surya Dev, which heavily influenced his love for astronomy & astrology, but his biggest trigger came from meeting Aryabhata, after which he permanently shifted to the intellectual capital of Ujjain to pursue an era-defining career.

Varaha was a title he later acquired from a king because of one of his predictions, linking him to Varaha, the Boar avatar of Vishnu.

Firstly, Varahamihira, in his Panchasiddhantika, analysed & critiqued 5 of the most monumental siddhantas of space science & mathematics, including Surya siddhanta, which calculates the motions of planets. He made immense contributions in algebra, trigonometry, and rules for dealing with zero, positive & negative numbers.

Secondly, his Brhat Samhita is one of the biggest encyclopaedias even compiled, combining ideas from biology, meteorology, ecology, architecture, and many other fields - also giving their applications in social settings.

He codified architecture & Vastu Shashtra, provided detailed instructions on how to build idols of deities, taught us how to make perfumes by combining different scents & ingredients. He was a pioneer of Vedic horoscopy & kundali analysis, along with its applications in every major event from military strategy to marriage.

And his list of achievements can go on for another hour…

Varahamira came after Aryabhata, but became a baseline for Bhaskaracharya & Brahmagupta, who criticised his work, but that only proved that our scientific minds only built on top of each other’s work, making each one equally important.

At roughly 82 years, he left behind a legacy.