JANTAR MANTAR : PROBING THE CELESTIAL MYSTERIES
(By Subbaram Danda)
The Jantar Mantar at Jaipur in the state of Rajasthan, India, is an 18th century open-air observatory with large-sized stone-and-marble structures in various geometrical shapes strategically placed at different points to study the movements of celestial bodies in the sky. It is far different from any present-day star-gazing facility, either in concept or design.
It was built at the behest of King Sawai Jai Singh II of the Rajput ancestry during 1727 – 1734 AD. In fact, it is the second of a total of five observatories set up by the king. The others have their locations in Delhi, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura, but the last one does not exist anymore.
Every observatory was originally called Yantra Mantra meaning gadgets and chants in Sanskrit. This nomenclature was adopted to impart an aura of mystery and sanctity to the entire system. In course of time the name became Jantar Mantar.
Bird's eye view of Jantar Mantar, Jaipur
Best preserved observatory
The Jaipur complex is considered by far “the largest observatory of its kind in the world and the best preserved one.” Its 14 masonry structures track and map the movements of the sun, moon, planets, stars and constellations.
It is indeed mind-boggling to visualise how the scholars (astronomy and astrology experts) and engineers of those days were able to conceive the design of each masonry structure to suit their requirements, determine its exact location in the complex, align its direction and position to the relevant celestial object and finally execute the entire scheme. They succeeded brilliantly in producing the desired results and more important, all the devices are working well even today.
To the untrained eye one structure looks like the flight of steps attached to a sliding board in any children’s play area and another appears like a large bowl. Yet another gives the impression of a huge maze. There are also crescent moon-shaped formations.
Unreserved praise
The foresight, wisdom and zeal of the king came in for unreserved praise from all quarters, because he was personally instrumental in ensuring the setting up of the observatory as a perfect system. It should be said to his credit that before embarking on his first observatory in Delhi he himself studied several available texts on the subject and sent scholars to foreign countries to collect whatever information they could on the developments in the field.
The Jayaprakash Yantra
Interestingly all this happened at a time when the technological progress elsewhere in the world offered little to be desired. James Watt, inventor of the first reliable steam engine, was yet to be born. Industrial Revolution was in its infancy in Great Britain. Politically, “the United States Declaration of independence” was four decades away.
The primary intention of the observatory was to collect accurate celestial data to develop almanacs, predict eclipses, determine the time of religious festivals, forecast monsoons and also prepare horoscopes (birth charts) of royal celebrities and other dignitaries. This was accomplished with precision. There were no quartz chronometers, atomic clocks or GPS satellites at that time.
Unique experience
A walk through the facility offers every visitor a unique experience of observing a “collective astronomical system at work designed to probe the heavens.” Each structure is known as a Yantra and has a distinctive name of its own. For example, Samrat Yantra is a massive sundial in the shape of a large triangle, which tells the local time exactly. The largest sundial of its kind in the world, it has a time scale with sub-divisions as fine as two seconds!
Jayaprakash Yantra, made of color and white marble, consists of two huge bowls looking skywards with their tops covered by bands of slabs at specific intervals. It performs multiple tasks and one of its major functions is to monitor the positions of the sun and other celestial bodies. Rama Yantra gives the altitude and the azimuth (co-ordinates) of different heavenly objects. Misra Yantra ascertains, among others, the shortest and longest days of a year.
Jantar Mantar, Jaipur, was restored in 1901 and was declared a national monument in 1948. The tag of a World Heritage Site came in 2010. While granting the status, UNESCO described it as “an expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts developed by the court of a scholarly prince.” It is indeed much more than that.
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May 1, 2011
