Jantar Mantar, New Delhi
An 18th-century naked-eye observatory with 13 architectural instruments.
Jantar Mantar in New Delhi is a naked-eye observatory consisting of 13 architectural astronomical instruments. It is one of five such observatories built across India by Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur, beginning in 1723. The site was designed to compile astronomical tables and predict the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets.
Quick Facts
- Other name
- Mishra Yantra
- Location
- New Delhi, India
- Nearest city
- New Delhi
- Elevation
- 723 ft / 220 m
- Founder
- Sawai Jai Singh
- Built
- 1724
Facts from the source article.
History
Jantar Mantar in New Delhi was built by Maharaja Jai Singh II in 1724, the first of five observatories he constructed during his 18th-century rule. The other four are located in Ujjain, Mathura, Varanasi, and Jaipur. The observatory aimed to gather astronomical data and predict planetary, lunar, and solar movements. By 1867, under British rule, it had undergone considerable decay.
Purpose of individual structures
The observatory contains four distinct instruments: the Samrat Yantra, Jayaprakash, Rama Yantra, and Mishra Yantra. The Samrat Yantra, or Supreme Instrument, is a giant triangular equal-hour sundial 70 feet high, 114 feet long at the base, and 10 feet thick, with a 128-foot hypotenuse parallel to Earth's axis pointing toward the North Pole. Its quadrants show hours, minutes, and seconds, and it can calculate local time to an accuracy of two seconds, making it the world's largest sundial. The Misra Yantra, a composition of five instruments, determines the shortest and longest days of the year and indicates the exact moment of noon in various cities worldwide; it is the only structure not invented by Jai Singh II. Additional instruments include the Shasthansa Yantra, which uses a pinhole camera mechanism within tower supports to measure the Sun's zenith distance, declination, and diameter, and the Kapala Yantra, built on the same principle as the Jai Prakash but used for demonstrating coordinate system transformation rather than active observation.
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