[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sarkar-1914) › c12.s8 # The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s8: Varāhamihira The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c12.s8 - **Language:** English ### Varāhamihira ### [c12.s8.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sarkar-1914.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sarkar-1914.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sarkar-1914.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sarkar-1914.c12.s8.4) ¹⁹ B. K. Sarkar: \*Hindu Achievements in Exact Science\* (New York 1918). ## Cites (5) - [Aṣṭādhyāyī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.vyakarana.astadhyayi-school.astadhyayi) — Pāṇini, Sanskrit - [Bṛhatsaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.astro.samhita.rsi.brhatsamhita) — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Purāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana) — Sanskrit - [Viśvakarmaśilpa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.silpa.visvakarman.visvakarmasilpa) — Viśvakarman, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sarkar-1914.c12.s8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sarkar-1914.c12.s8) · Pramāṇa