External features of vegetation as hydrologic indicators in Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita

Abstract

Varahamihira (A.D. 505-5&7), in his magnum opus Brihat Samhita, described various morphologic and physiologic features of vegetation as hydrologic indicators to locate sources of ground water at depths ranging from 3·43m (11'-3') to as much as 171·40m (562'-6'). All these iudi,'ators are the responses resulting from high relative humidity and reduced transpiration in a microhabitat underlain by a ground water reservoir in arid and semiarid regions.