Jantar Mantar
Delhi
The king of the pink city, Maharaja Jai Singh II was a smart king who had believes in the astronomy. Between 1727 and 1734, he built an observatory in the western central regions of India, and Jaipur was one of them. The observatory was named as “Jantar Mantarâ. He constructed five such unique forms in which Jaipur was the largest and preserved of them all. It is known as “The expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period.†The name Jantar Mantar means the calculation instrument. A keen astronomer major Arthur Garrett built this observatory keeping in mind the astronomical concepts and analysis. Jantar Mantar consists of fourteen geometric devices which can measure time, predict eclipse, track stars with the location of earth orbiting around the sun, decline of planets and determining the celestial altitudes. All the instruments in general are large structures attributing the specific prediction. Declared as the national monument in 1948, every instrument has its own uniqueness built by the stones and marbles carrying an astronomical scale. The unique characteristics of each instrument individually share a place of pride in the book of the pink city. Samrat Yantra also known as sundial, the largest of the entire instruments is plotted to predict the time of the day. With the perfect angle towards the latitude of Jaipur, one can easily focus and predict the time. Sundial is the largest instrument ever to predict the time to stand twenty seven meters tall. On top of that is the Hindu Chattri also knows as Small Cupola which is a stage to predict the eclipse and the arrivals of the monsoons. Ram yantra is one such instrument which is an example of excellent architectural designs and its relation to function. The local astronomers use these instruments to predict the monsoon for farmers. JayaPrakash yantra (instrument) attributes the hollowed out hemisphere on the concave surface used to observe the alignment of the position of a star with windows edges. Jantar Mantar is one place of learning for the students of astronomy and Vedic astrology. Probably Jantar Mantar is the only practical proof left for the Vedic astrology other than texts. Many such instruments carry specific astrological meaning serving to the society and the universe. The Yantra (instruments) involved in the premises of Jantar Mantar shares the equal importance and excellence, with are the only practical large instruments predicting astronomy in the world.
