The Panchasiddhantika and the Brihat Samhita were written by which ancient Indian scholar?
- A.Varahamihira
- B.Nilakantha Somayaji
- C.Charaka
- D.Kanada
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Varahamihira. Varahamihira, who lived in the sixth century, summarised five earlier astronomical schools in the Panchasiddhantika, wrote the encyclopaedic Brihat Samhita covering astronomy, omens, architecture, gems and the finding of underground water, and composed the Brihat Jataka on horoscopy. Option B is wrong because Nilakantha Somayaji of the Kerala school wrote the Tantrasamgraha in 1501, nearly a thousand years later. Option C is wrong because Charaka is the author of the Charaka Samhita, a work of medicine, and tradition places him at the court of Kanishka. Option D is wrong because Kanada founded the Vaisheshika school of philosophy and is associated with the doctrine of the paramanu or atom, not with astronomy. Varahamihira is counted among the scholars of the Ujjain tradition, and his Brihat Samhita is the work most often quoted for ancient Indian knowledge of groundwater, gems and building.
Read the full article: Science and Mathematics in Ancient India: Scholars and Texts
Practice Questions
View allThe Aryabhatiya, composed in 499 CE, is divided into which four parts?
- A.Gitikapada, Ganitapada, Kalakriyapada and Golapada
- B.Lilavati, Bijaganita, Grahaganita and Goladhyaya
- C.Gitikapada, Bijaganita, Golapada and Nidana
- D.Ganitapada, Rasayanapada, Kalapada and Jatakapada
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Aryabhata, born in 476 CE, wrote the Aryabhatiya in 499 CE in four sections: the Gitikapada on units of time and the large astronomical cycles, the Ganitapada on mathematics, the Kalakriyapada on the reckoning of time and planetary positions, and the Golapada on the celestial sphere.
Read the full explanation →Who wrote the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628 CE, the first work to lay down rules for calculating with zero and with negative numbers?
- A.Aryabhata
- B.Brahmagupta
- C.Varahamihira
- D.Bhaskara II
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Brahmagupta composed the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628 CE, in which he treated zero as a number and not merely as a placeholder and gave rules for adding, subtracting and multiplying positive and negative quantities, which he called fortunes and debts; he also wrote the Khandakhadyaka and argued that bodies fall because…
Read the full explanation →Lilavati, the celebrated work on arithmetic, is a part of which treatise and by which author?
- A.The Aryabhatiya of Aryabhata
- B.The Ganita Sara Sangraha of Mahaviracharya
- C.The Siddhanta Shiromani of Bhaskara II
- D.The Brihat Samhita of Varahamihira
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Bhaskara II, also called Bhaskaracharya, wrote the Siddhanta Shiromani in 1150 CE in four parts, of which Lilavati deals with arithmetic, mensuration and problems of everyday calculation, Bijaganita with algebra, and Grahaganita and Goladhyaya with astronomy.
Read the full explanation →The Sushruta Samhita is the foundational ancient Indian text on which branch of knowledge?
- A.Astronomy
- B.Surgery
- C.Metallurgy
- D.Grammar
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The Sushruta Samhita is the classical manual of shalya chikitsa or surgery, describing surgical instruments, the removal of the cataract, the setting of fractures, the stitching of wounds and the rebuilding of a severed nose, for which Sushruta is remembered as the father of surgery and of plastic surgery.
Read the full explanation →The Sulbasutras, which contain the earliest Indian geometry, are appendices to which class of texts?
- A.The Upanishads
- B.The Shrauta Sutras
- C.The Puranas
- D.The Jatakas
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The Sulbasutras are appendices to the Shrauta Sutras and give the geometrical rules for laying out the brick altars of Vedic sacrifice, including the construction of squares and rectangles of a given area and the statement that the square on the diagonal equals the sum of the squares on the…
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