The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s8: Varāhamihira

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s8

Language: English

Varāhamihira

c12.s8.1

The *Brihat Samhitā* of Varāhamihira (c. 505-587) is an *Encyclopaedia Indica* of the time, although of no huge dimensions. It furnishes information as much about climatology and astronomy, architecture and town planning as about the seven-limbed organism, the state. It is a landmark of Hindu scientific thought.

c12.s8.2

We may indeed describe this period of nine hundred years as that of scientific growth and development from Pāṇini to Varāhamihira.

c12.s8.3

"Treatises" on applied economics known as *Vārttāśāstras* can perhaps be not yet traced back to the Gupta period. But the literature on farming, cattle breeding, commerce and banking is to be found in the *Purāṇas*, the Epics, as well as in the *Brihat Samhitā*. The same remarks apply to the *Śilpaśāstras* (treatises on arts and crafts). No record of Gupta positivism can be complete without due orientations to the secular and "exact" sciences¹⁹ as many of the *Vārttā* and *Śilpa* books are. The subject deserves more than an incidental notice.

c12.s8.4

¹⁹ B. K. Sarkar: *Hindu Achievements in Exact Science* (New York 1918).

Linked texts (5)

Aṣṭādhyāyī — Pāṇini, Sanskrit
Bṛhatsaṃhitā — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Purāṇa — Sanskrit
Viśvakarmaśilpa — Viśvakarman, Sanskrit