Further connections with Iran exist (Upadhye 1933). Davar has an exhaustive description of the Maga "Brahmins" and provides substantial new evidence proving Varahamihira's Iranic origin:
"We shall now review the influence of the Mag Brahmins on India. According to K.N.Sitaram,38 [38. "Iranian Influence on Indian Culture": an article by K.N.Sitaram in the K.R.Cama Institute Journal] the influence of the Mag Brahmins was considerable in the 6th century AD, when the Iranian form of sun-worship was in full swing in India. Sitaram holds that king Harshavardhan (AD 606-648), his father PrabhÄkarvardhan, his father Ädityavardhan and his father RÄjyavardhan were all sun-worshippers and {p.66} descendants of Mag Brahmins. It is also significant that `PrabhÄkar' and `Äditya' are names of the sun. Sitaram asserts that the famous Indian astronomer VarÄhamihir of the 6th century AD was a Mag Brahmin, and that he had referred to his Mag Brahmin ancestors in his works. From his father's name ÄdityadÄs (meaning servant of the sun) and from the fact that VarÄhamihir dedicated his great work, the BrihatsamhitÄ, to Mihir (Mithra or the sun), Sitaram concludes that the astronomer was in some way connected with the Mag Brahmins. In this respect a shrewd argument has been advanced by J.E.Sanjana 39, [39. "VarÄhamihir - an Iranian name": an article by J.E.Sanjana in the Dinshah J.Irani Memorial Volume] who invites our attention to a certain verse of a Zarathushtrian scripture, named the Meher Yasht (Yasht X), according to which, while Meher (the sun) advances, he is accompanied by Verethraghna (Vritrahaá¹a or BehrÄm) in the form of a "varÄz" (varÄha or boar). From this Avestan passage one can see the close connection between VarÄha (boar) and Mihir (sun), which words go to form the name of the Hindu astronomer, and thus support the theory that he was a Mag Brahmin." (Davar 1962, p.65-66)
<b>The Magas of Persia were of course subsequently absorbed into Islam as the priestly Sayyid or Syed class. Islam - with its focus on the Kaaba of Mecca, the ancient temple of the Assyrian or Syrian Sun-God Hu-Baal, Bel or Baal - came naturally to the heliolatric Persian Magas, who no doubt regarded Islam as an offshoot of the ancient Iranic Solar religion.</b>
"We shall now review the influence of the Mag Brahmins on India. According to K.N.Sitaram,38 [38. "Iranian Influence on Indian Culture": an article by K.N.Sitaram in the K.R.Cama Institute Journal] the influence of the Mag Brahmins was considerable in the 6th century AD, when the Iranian form of sun-worship was in full swing in India. Sitaram holds that king Harshavardhan (AD 606-648), his father PrabhÄkarvardhan, his father Ädityavardhan and his father RÄjyavardhan were all sun-worshippers and {p.66} descendants of Mag Brahmins. It is also significant that `PrabhÄkar' and `Äditya' are names of the sun. Sitaram asserts that the famous Indian astronomer VarÄhamihir of the 6th century AD was a Mag Brahmin, and that he had referred to his Mag Brahmin ancestors in his works. From his father's name ÄdityadÄs (meaning servant of the sun) and from the fact that VarÄhamihir dedicated his great work, the BrihatsamhitÄ, to Mihir (Mithra or the sun), Sitaram concludes that the astronomer was in some way connected with the Mag Brahmins. In this respect a shrewd argument has been advanced by J.E.Sanjana 39, [39. "VarÄhamihir - an Iranian name": an article by J.E.Sanjana in the Dinshah J.Irani Memorial Volume] who invites our attention to a certain verse of a Zarathushtrian scripture, named the Meher Yasht (Yasht X), according to which, while Meher (the sun) advances, he is accompanied by Verethraghna (Vritrahaá¹a or BehrÄm) in the form of a "varÄz" (varÄha or boar). From this Avestan passage one can see the close connection between VarÄha (boar) and Mihir (sun), which words go to form the name of the Hindu astronomer, and thus support the theory that he was a Mag Brahmin." (Davar 1962, p.65-66)
<b>The Magas of Persia were of course subsequently absorbed into Islam as the priestly Sayyid or Syed class. Islam - with its focus on the Kaaba of Mecca, the ancient temple of the Assyrian or Syrian Sun-God Hu-Baal, Bel or Baal - came naturally to the heliolatric Persian Magas, who no doubt regarded Islam as an offshoot of the ancient Iranic Solar religion.</b>