---
type: Reference
bundle: jyotisha-kala
bundle_version: 0.12.0
id: brihat-samhita
title: Bṛhat Saṃhitā
description: 'Varāhamihira’s encyclopedia of the saṃhitā skandha: planetary courses as public omens, the Rāhu chapter weighing eclipse causation against the demon narrative, and the sixty-year Jupiter cycle.'
tags:
- reference
- varahamihira
- samhita
- omens
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Bṛhat Saṃhitā

The Bṛhat Saṃhitā is the classical monument of the saṃhitā skandha: the world-reading branch that treats planetary courses (graha-cāra), eclipses and their alleged effects, meteorology, architecture, iconography, and much else, as public rather than natal matters. This bundle cites chapter 5 (Rāhu-cāra), where Varāhamihira discusses eclipse causation by the nodes against the Svarbhānu narrative, and chapter 8 for the classical treatment of the sixty-year Bṛhaspati (Jupiter) cycle of saṃvatsara names. The text also anchors the bundle’s claim that the three skandhas are the tradition’s own taxonomy, not a modern imposition.
