“I have my armies,” the King said, gesturing to the parched land beyond the palace windows. “But they cannot fight the sun. You have written your Brhat Samhita —the ‘Great Compendium.’ You claim it holds the science of the cosmos, architecture, rain, and even the behavior of animals. Tell me, Sage: Will it rain?”
The Eyes of the Sky
That night, Varāhamihira climbed the stone steps of the Ujjain observatory. He watched the cirrus clouds, which the Brhat Samhita called ‘tāra-patha’ —the path of stars. They were moving east to west, but high, thin. Then, just before dawn, he felt it: a cold gust from the north-west. the brhat samhita of varaha mihira varahamihira
He smiled. “The Vāyu-pitr wind. The rain’s father.” “I have my armies,” the King said, gesturing