Brihat Samhita
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An encyclopedic survey of everything held to be predictable, from planetary motion and rainfall to architecture and gemstones, written by an astronomer who states plainly where his sources disagree.
- five competing astronomical systems summarised rather than merged
- Greek astronomical material acknowledged as foreign in origin
- practical arts treated as subjects of systematic rule
- disagreement among sources reported rather than smoothed
The Brihat Samhita covers over a hundred chapters of applied knowledge: astronomical and calendrical matter, weather signs, agriculture, town planning, temple and image proportions, the testing of gems and pearls, and omens. Varahamihira also wrote the Pancha-Siddhantika, which summarises five earlier astronomical systems including one of Greek derivation, and in doing so preserves the only account of works otherwise lost. He is unusual in naming his authorities and in noting where they conflict rather than harmonising them.
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