Bharat – Ek Khoj – Varahamihira
India has been the cradle of many scientific discoveries. Here we profile an Indian
scientist and one ancient Indian technology…
Varahamihira, also called Varaha or Mihira, was an Indian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician. He is the author of the Pancha-siddhantika (“Five Treatises”) – a collection of Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Indian astronomy. He made great contributions in the fields of hydrology, geology and ecology. He was one of the first scientists to claim that termites and plants could be the indicators of the presence of underground water. He gave a list of six animals and 30 plants, which could indicate the presence of water.
In the history of Science, he was the first to claim that some “force” might be keeping bodies stuck to the earth. This force is now called gravity.
Varahamihira was the first to mention and explain how each planet in the solar system has been created by and centered on the sun. The earthquake cloud theory given by Varahmihira devoted to signs of earthquakes is another important contribution to the world of science. He tried to relate earthquakes to the influence of planets, undersea activities, underground water, unusual cloud formation and abnormal behaviour of animals.
Do you know?
Varahamihira predicted the presence of water on Mars nearly 1500 years ago!
-Team ScienceNow
