Dr. Arijit Gupta
Assistant Professor & Head, Department of Sanskrit, Dwijendralal College, Krishnanagar, Nadia, West Bengal, India
E-mail: arijitgupta89@gmail.com ORCID iD: http://orcid.org/0009-0001-8210-7121
Issue: Vol. 2 No. 3 (September 2026) – Anubodhan
Received: 17 September 2026 / Accepted: 24 September 2026 / Published: 30 September 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n3.2026.137
Abstract
In the ancient Indian intellectual tradition, nature was regarded not merely as the backdrop against which human life unfolded, but as a companion to human existence, a source of warning, and a significant repository of signs pointing towards impending events. A particularly noteworthy testimony to this perspective is found in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā of the sage Varāhamihira. In its chapters dealing with śākuna, or omens, the natural and anomalous behaviour of birds, dogs, jackals, cattle, horses, elephants, crows, ants, as well as terrestrial and aquatic animals—their movements, calls, choice of habitat, feeding patterns, and seasonal behaviour—is correlated with possible future events and environmental changes. Animal behaviour is especially treated as an object of observation in the identification of signs preceding such calamities as excessive rainfall, drought, fire, famine, epidemics, violent winds, and the destruction of settlements.
Drawing upon Chapters Eighty-Eight to Ninety-Five of the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, the present study analyses this knowledge-system centred on animal behaviour and its underlying epistemological framework. The discussion demonstrates that, in Varāhamihira’s mode of inquiry, animals are not conceived as isolated entities detached from the natural world; rather, they are understood as living indicators intimately responsive to subtle changes within their environment. Particular instances—including the behaviour of dogs during the rainy season, the infestation of cattle by flies, the nest-building patterns of crows, aberrations in the behaviour of terrestrial and aquatic animals, and the relocation of eggs by ants—reveal a discernible tendency towards systematic environmental observation. Yet, this corpus of lakṣaṇa-based knowledge cannot be equated with modern scientific meteorology or contemporary technologies of environmental prediction. It is from this perspective that the present article seeks to re-examine and critically reassess the śākuna tradition of the Bṛhatsaṃhitā as an important component of ancient Indian ecological and environmental thought.
Keywords: Bṛhatsaṃhitā, Varāhamihira, śākuna tradition, animal behaviour, natural disasters, environmental observation.
How to cite: Gupta, A. (2026). The Language of Animals and the Signs of Calamity: Environmental Observation and Disaster Prediction in Varāhamihira’s Bṛhatsaṃhitā. Anubodhan, 2(3), 404–413. https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n3.2026.137