Jantar Mantar Observatory

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Collections	Arthur Llewellyn Basham
Title:	Jantar Mantar Observatory
Author(s):	Frederic, Louis Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
Keywords:	Mughal Architecture-- Mughal period Delhi;architecture;landscape
Series/Report no.:	Basham Collection
Description:	In the foreground, on the right, a Jai Prakash Yantra in the background, two Ram Yantras. In 1734, the Maharaja of Jaipur, who was passionate[ly] interested in astronomical research, decided to verify the tables and calculations established 300 years earlier by Ulugh Beg of Samarkand. Rejecting such bronze instruments as the astrolabe, which he found inaccurate, he had 5 observatories built, in Delhi, Benares, Ujjain and Jaipur, where he replaced the known instruments by instruments of marble and concrete of his own invention. The principal instruments which Maharaja Jai Singh invented were the Samrat Yantra, for measuring solar time, the Ram Yantra, for measuring altitudes, and the azimuths of stars, and the Jai Prakash Yantra, for demonstrating the laws of spheres and showing the apparent movement of the sun. These monuments, built in red sandstone and marble, allow measurements of great precision. -- View from the top of the Samrat Yantra.
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/1885/182887
Other Identifiers:	ANUA 682-2260

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ANUA_682_2260.tif		16.73 MB	TIFF

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