Jantar Mantar, Jaipur, India

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The Jantar Mantar

 

The world’s largest stone observatory is the Jantar Mantar in the city of Jaipur and this fact makes it a must-see place in India for travelers. One of the five observatories built by Jaipur’s founder, the Maharaja Jai Singh, Jantar Mantar was built within 1727 to 1733. Although at first it was called the

Yantra Mantra (which in the Indian language means “instruments and formulae”) it was renamed to Jantar Mantar because of the common mispronunciation of the term.

Jantar Mantar boasts of an impressive array of instruments for architectural astronomical purposes.

It depicts an admirable attempt by the ancestors, who were very much into astronomy and the study of celestial bodies. Most of all, the Jantar Mantar observatory is still able to provide accurate information and can still hold its own among the current instruments in use today. Indian astronomy in then Middle Ages came up with compound instruments carefully shaped and set, a legacy of the genius of the Indian heritage.

Jantar Mantar is entirely built in marble and stone. The observatory has 14 statistical instruments for

time measurement, eclipse prediction as well as the prediction of other astronomical occurrences.

The Sundial, which tells time accurately to approximately 2 seconds in Jaipur local time, is one of the instruments in the observatory which attracts the most attention among visitors.  Just look for one of

the Indian girls who act as a tourguide to show you the place.