"Dvija (Brahmana) of Magadha"; instead "Magadha" here means Maga, as attested by the Bhavishya Purana. Residence Besides the above-mentioned stanza, Varāhamihira's association with Avanti is confirmed by other evidence: in Pancha-siddhantika, he calls himself Avantyaka ("of Avanti"), and the later commentators such as Utpala and Mahidhara describe him as Avantikacharya ("acharya of Avanti"). Utpala also describes Varāhamihira's son Prthu-yashas as Avantikacharya, in his commentary on Shat-panchashika. Historian Ajay Mitra Shastri, relying on Utpala, believes that "Avanti" here refers to the city of Ujjayini in the Avanti region of central India. Scholar Dániel Balogh, however, notes that Avanti here may refer to the city of Ujjayini or the Avanti region in general: there is no concrete evidence that Varāhamihira lived in the city; he may have lived elsewhere in Avanti. Royal patron Varāhamihira likely lived in the Aulikara kingdom, as the Aulikaras ruled Avanti in the 6th century CE. Varāhamihira's Brhat-samhita states that on the topic of omens (shakuna), one of the works he consulted was that of Dravya-vardhana, the king of Avanti. Dravya-vardhana likely belonged to the Aulikara dynasty, several of whose members bore names ending in -vardhana. Historian Ajay Mitra Shastri notes that Dravya-vardhana is the only person for whom Varāhamihira employs the honorific Shri, although he mentions several other notable people. Moreover, he mentions Dravya-vardhana's work before he mentions reputed authorities such as the Saptarishis and Garga. According to Shastri, this, combined with the fact that both Dravya-vardhana and Varāhamihira lived in Avanti, suggests that Dravya-vardhana was the royal patron of Varāhamihira. Shastri theorizes that Dravya-vardhana was a successor of Yashodharman alias Vishnu-vardhana, who may have also been a patron of Varāhamihira. Some other historians identify Dravya-vardhana with the earlier Aulikara ruler Drapa-vardhana. Shastri disputes this, arguing that Varāhamihira describes Dravya-vardhana was a maharajadhiraja (emperor), while the Rīsthal inscription inscription describes Drapa-vardhana as a senapati (commander). Balogh disagrees with Shastri, noting that Varāhamihira actually uses the term nrpo maharajadhiraja-kah (nrpa or ruler "connected to the emperor") for the king, which Shastri has misunderstood as maharajadhirajah (emperor). Only one manuscript reads maharajadhirajah, which can be discarded as it doesn't fit the metre; three others have maharajdhiraja-jah. Thus, the actual title of Drapa-vardhana was nrpa, which is much closer to senapati in status. Utpala also interprets the term maharajadhiraja-kah to mean "born in the dynasty of the (or an) emperor". Hans Bakker interprets the term to maharajadhiraja-kah as a governor