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Jaipur Jantar Mantar

Description

The site is a collection of 19 astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II, the founder of Jaipur. It features the world's largest stone sundial, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The instruments allow the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye. The observatory is an example of the Ptolemaic positional astronomy which was shared by many civilizations. The monument features instruments operating in each of the three main classical celestial coordinate systems: the horizon-zenith local system, the equatorial system, and the ecliptic system.

Constructed, 1734

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The monument features instruments operating in each of the three main classical celestial coordinate systems: the horizon-zenith local system, the equatorial system, and the ecliptic system.

The observatory is an example of the Ptolemaic positional astronomy which was shared by many civilizations.

The Jantar Mantar has the biggest sundial in the world.

The monument was damaged in the 19th century.

Early restoration work was undertaken under the supervision of Major Arthur Garrett, a keen amateur astronomer, during his appointment as Assistant State Engineer for the Jaipur District.

The complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The name jantar is derived from yantra a Sanskrit word, meaning "instrument, machine", and mantar from mantrana also a Sanskrit word "consult, calculate"

Several instruments had been built by 1728, and the construction of the instruments in Jaipur continued until 1738.

During 1735, when construction was at its peak, at least 23 astronomers were employed in Jaipur, and due to the changing political climate, Jaipur replaced Delhi as Raja Jai Singh's main observatory and remained Jai Singh's central observatory until his death in 1743.

Ram Singh (r. 1835-1880) completed restoring the Jantar Mantar in 1876

Ram Singh also made some of the instruments more durable by inserting lead into the instruments' lines and using stone to restore some of the plaster instruments.

The observatory after Ram Singh's demise was not restored until 1901 under Madho Singh II (r. 1880-1922)

The observatory consists of nineteen instruments for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking location of major stars as the earth orbits around the sun, ascertaining the declinations of planets, and determining the celestial altitudes and related ephemerides.

Chakra Yantra (four semicircular arcs on which a gnomon casts a shadow, thereby giving the declination of the Sun at four specified times of the day. This data corresponds to noon at four observatories around the world

Jai Prakash Yantra holds two hemispherical bowl-based sundials with marked marble slabs that map inverted images of sky and allow the observer to move inside the instrument; measures altitudes, azimuths, hour angles, and declinations

The scale to which they have been built has been alleged to increase their accuracy.

Jantar Mantar is managed under the Archeological Sites and Monuments Act of Rajasthan since 1961

Built from local stone and marble, each instrument carries an astronomical scale, generally marked on the marble inner lining.

Bronze tablets, bricks and mortar were also employed in building the instruments in the monument spread over about 18,700 square metres.

It is said that the masons constructing the instruments had insufficient experience with construction of this scale, and subsidence of the foundations has subsequently misaligned them.

The samrat yantra, for instance, which is a sundial, is claimed to tell the time to an accuracy of about two seconds in Jaipur local time.

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