Ancient India's Astronomical Observatory

When we think of the imperial age in India, the only thing which comes to our mind is the grandeur of Indian forts and the various battles fought for annexation of land. But during those times, there existed thinkers who would want to gain knowledge beyond human capacity.

The Jantar Mantar built in 1734 by Maharaja Jai Singh (II) stands as a significance of astronomical advancements in the early ages. The Jantar Mantar observatory was set up to compile astronomical tables and track the movement of The Sun, moon and other planets. It is an expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period. The placement of this equinoctial sundial was made so accurately, that the instruments are aligned parallel to Earth's axis and also parallel to the plane of the Equator.

The Brihat Samrat Yantra is known to predict the local time within a span of two seconds and is declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

In total 5 Jantar Mantar were constructed in Delhi, Mathura, Jaipur, Varanasi and Ujjan but the Mathura one was torn down just before the sepoy Mutiny of 1857.

~R.S

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