पञ्चसिद्धान्तिका (आचार्य वराहमिहिर - सूर्य, रोमक, पौलिश, वासिष्ठ एवं पितामह सिद्धान्त)

XXVIII PAÑCASIDDHĀNTIKĀ
Personal details about VM are forthcoming from his own writings as also from those of others.
Towards the close of his Bṛhajjātaka, VM says:
Ādityadāsa-tanayas tadavāptabodhaḥ
Kāpittakaḥ savitṛlabdhavaraprasādaḥ |
Avantiko munimatāny avalokya samyag
Horām Varāhamihiro ruciram cakāra ||
(Br.J. 26.1 (Edn. Triv. Skt. Ser., No.91)
Thus VM was the son of Ādityadāsa; he learnt the śāstra from his own father; his native place was
Kāpitthaka; he was blessed by Lord Sun (at Kāpitthaka). He (later) resided at Avanti (Ujjain)
where he composed his work Horā (Bṛhajjātaka). On Kapitthaka VM's commentator Utpala says :
Kāpitthākhye grāme yo 'sau bhagavān savitā sūryaḥ, tasmāt labdhaḥ prāpto varaḥ prasādo yena ('In the vil-
lage of Kāpittha where he received the blessing of God Sun'). Kāpitthaka, the native village of VM,
has been identified by Ajay Mitra Shastri (vide his India as seen by Varāhamihira, (MLBD, Delhi,
1969, p.19) on the basis of the mention thereof by 7th century Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang with
Kāpittha populary known as "Saṅkāśya (modern Sankisa) in the Farrukhabad district of Uttar
Pradesh...."
Utpala states in his commentary on VM's Bṛhatsaṁhitā (I.1) that VM was a 'Magadhadvija' : tad
ayam apy Āvantyakācāryo Magadhadvija-Varāhamihiraḥ arkalabdhavaraprasādo jyotiśśāstrasaṅgrahakṛt,
(Ed. Sarasvati Bhavana Granthamālā, Varanasi, 1968, p.2). Utpala makes such a statement also in
his commentary on VM's Yogayātrā. This and the surname 'Mihira' which is borne by many Śāka-
dvīpa brāhmaṇas, who are worshippers of the Sun, would indicate that VM belonged to this clan
of Brāhmaṇas whose forefathers migrated to India from the Maga country in Persia and settled in
the village of Kāpitthaka whence VM came to the city of Ujjain where he wrote his works.
By all accounts, Varāhamihira had the Sun as his tutelary deity. To quote A.M. Shastri (op. cit.,
pp. 20-21) :
'That Varāhamihira was a devotee of the Sun admits of no doubt. His father's name was
Ādityadāsa, his own name-ending 'Mihira', derived from 'Mithra', the Iranian Sun-god, his
obtaining a boon from the Sun, his obeisance to the Sun in all his works except the
Vivāhapaṭala, (which, appropriately enough, opens with an invocation to Kāma, the Indian
god of love), and his devoting a comparatively larger number of verses to the description of
Sūrya icons, all indicate that the sun was his family deity. His son Pṛthuyaśas also invokes the
Sun in the opening verse of his Ṣaṭpañcāśikā. As we have seen, Varāhamihira was regarded as
an incarnation of the Sun.'
The fame of VM has given rise to several legends about his birth and incidents in his life, includ-
ing his being a courtier of King Vikrama and one of the nine gems (nava-ratnas) in his court. All
these have to be considered as more fable and eological, not based on facts.
Varāhamihira was an astute astronomer and astrologer and wrote extensively on all the three
branches of the science, viz., Tantra or mathematical astronomy, Horā (Jātaka) or horoscopy, and
Saṁhitā or mundane or natural astrology. It is interesting that for all his major works, VM has
prepared abridged versions also for the benefit of those who desist from works which are too
lengthy, who, as Utpala says, are vistaragrantha-bhīru-s.