MAUSAM. 49. 3 (July 1998).375·382

550.348.436 (54)

A Perspective of historical ea rthquakes in India and its neighbourhood upto 1900

S.N. BHAlTACHARYA

Meteorological Office, New Delhi - 110003, India

(Received 8 August 1996, Modified 12 December 1996)

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ABSTRACf A Slud) has been carried out on pest seismic activity in India and its neighbourhood from ancien! rimes( 0 nineteenth centu ry. During sixth century AD. the great Indian astronomer Yalaha Mihira investigated eertbquakes in hisbook 'Briha t Samhita' , A brief description and anal ysis on his investigations have been cited. Based on scientific reports anda few history and geog raphy books . a lisl of earthquakes of magnitude 6 and above upro 1900 AD has been prepared for India

and its neighbourhood in me region bounded by latitude between 00 and 40'"N and longitude between WOE and 1000E. A briefdescription of earthquakes of rnagrutude 8 and above has aJso been included .

Kcy words - Earthquake ca talogue. Historical earthquakes. Past seismic ity .

I. Introduction

In India, earthquakes are being studied for a long lime.A glimpse of ancie nt literature shows that duri ng sixthce ntury AD Lhe great astr onomer Varaha Mihira investi ­ga ted earth quakes in his book "Brihat Samhita" . The resultsof his investigations have been briefly described and ana­lysed in section 2. Further in section 3. a preliminary list ofearthquakes o f mag nitude 6 and above upto 1900 AD inIndia and its neighbourhood have been compi led. The exac t

region co nsidered here is boun ded between latitude 0° and

400 N and longitude 600E and I()()OE. Thc list is compi ledmainl y on the basis of availab le scientific repor ts and cata­logues. There are abundan t references of earthquakes in thebooks nn history and geography such as, James ( 1975) andKaul (197 1). It is fell thai the proposed list can significantlybe improved upon if other such books are consulted.

2. S tu dies of Varaha Mihira

During 6th century AD Varaha Mihira described hisinvestigations on earthquakes in chapter 32 of his hook"Brihat Sarnh ita" (Tripathi 1968, Bhat 198 1). He catagor-

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ired earthquakes in 4 classes according to the causes of theiroccurrence. The classifications are :

(I) Vayabya caused by 'Vayu', the wind)

(il) Varuna (caused by 'Varuna ' the God o f water)

(i iI) Aindra (caused by 'Indra' , the rul er of sky andGod of thunder)

(iv) Ag niya (caused hy 'Agni', the fire )

Vayabya earth quakes are fell a long a distance of 200yoja ns or about 1600 km, i.e.. 800 krn aro und the cpicentre,With the present day scale, th is corresponds 10 an earthquakeof magnitude 8.5. In such an earthquake , afte rshock s co n­tinue for two months. ·According 10 Varah a Mih ira. suc hearthquakes occ urred in Saurashtra, Matsy a (Jaipur) , Kuru(Th ancswar, Hissar and Meerut region between Yamunaand Ganga), Magadh (districts of Patna and Gaya in Bihar)and Dasarna (eastern Malwa and adjoining part of Chh au s­garh ).

Varuna earthquakes are fell at a radiu s of abo ut 720 kmand correspond 10 magnitude little above 8. An earthquakeof this type is accompanied by afters hocks which occur on