How Mihirar turned Varahamihirar..

Om Sri Sairam !!! Om Namasivaya!!!


Varahamihirar the arithmetic exponent, an Indian astronomy expert and a contemporary of Vikramadhithya was originally called as Mihirar only. Later on he came to be known as Varahamihirar.

One day, King Vikramadhithya was very happy on the birth of his son. King Vikramadhithya wanted to write the horoscope for his new born son. When he ordered his Austhana purohit Mihirar to write one, looking at the time of birth of the prince he hesitated to prepare the horoscope. He realized that the prince will not live longer and will die in his boyhood. But the king wanted to know the fate and future of the prince and his successor insisted the purohit to work out the astrology and develop the horoscope immediately. Mihirar understood that the king was very eager to know the future of his prince but worried to reveal him the fact that the child will not live longer. Mihirar feared that the king may even kill him if he said the truth. On seeing the Purohit hesitating, the king grew more anxious and suspected something was wrong and hence wanted to know the future of the child. He compelled Mihirar to tell him of the truth without any fear immediately. As there was not much choice left, Mihirar told the king that the new born prince would be killed by a wild bore while he is in his boyhood. The king could not believe this and advised Mihirar to verify his calculation and see the possibility to change the fate of his son. Though Mihirar was very confident about his calculation, agreed to do so just to satisfy the king; recalculated the horoscope, however noting changed and he told the king of it. Now, the King grew in anger warned that he (Mihirar) would be beheaded, if he was found incorrect.

On the other hand, the King was doing all he can and making all arrangements to save his son from the wild bore. From the time the child started walking, the king never allowed the child to be taken out of the palace. The king built a seven storey building and accommodated the child at the seventh floor. Only the king, the queen and one or two faithful servants could access the floor where the child was accommodated. One day the child was playing in the open space of the seventh floor. However, fate had its better hand. One day, there was a sudden flow of a wild wind and the emblem of the King uprooted and fell on the child and killed the baby instantly while he was playing.

Here it is worth to note that the emblem of he king was wild bore. Thus what Mihirar foretold turned out to be true. Ever since that day, Mihirar was called Varaha Mihirar. Varaha means bore in Tamil. It was in praise of this that the emblem and flag of the kingdom was fixed at prominent places in the king ruled territory.

It’s really amazing that Varaha Mihirar was so accurate in his predictions at a time roughly two thousand years back when no modern scientific instruments were available.