Jantar Mantar Jaipur

I am awestruck on a daily basis. This is another jaw dropping visit.
Going to the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur.
We are in 1728.
On the throne is Sawai Jai Singh II.
He became ruler of Amber in 1699 at the age of 11 when his father Maharaja Bishan Singh died. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb bestowed upon him the title of "Sawai" which meant one and a quarter times better.
Just that little bit better than everyone else.He truly was.

In 1719, he was witness to a heated debate regarding astronomical calculations to determine an auspicious date when the emperor could start a journey. This discussion led Jai Singh to think that the nation needed to be educated on the subject of astronomy.He was a brilliant astronomer, mathematician and town planner.
 
He built the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur and many others and they are wonderful collections of astronomical instruments.The word Jantar Mantar roughly translated from the Sansktrit means  ‘The Formula of Instruments’

The Jaipur Jantar Mantar is near the city palace and is particularly impressive.
 
The ‘Samrat Yantra’ is a gigantic 90 feet high and 148 feet wide sun-dial, north-south coordinated and angled at 27 degrees, the latitude of Jaipur, and outfitted with finely calibrated quadrants on which the movement of the sun’s shadow (falling on the western ramp before noon and on the eastern ramp in the afternoon) can be carefully charted to not only measure the local time to an accuracy of half a minute, but also precisely note zenith distances, meridian pass time and the celestial latitudes.
 

Here at a sundial we are exploring the local time -incredibly precise.

They all have names like the ‘Ram Yantra’, the Langhu Samrat Yantra and the Chakra Yantra.
The most fascinating of all is the ‘Jai Prakash Yantra’, which consists of two large, bowl-shaped, complementary, marble hemispheres that have planetary latitude and longitude markings and are deep-set in the ground with channels for allowing the instrument reader access to other parts of the hemispheres. A small pointer on a wire is hung over the centre of each hemisphere, and by the position of the sun’s shadow on the marked hemisphere sections it is possible to read the coordinates of the sun.If you look carefully at the picture you can see the pointer and its shadow.

One of the guides says that the instruments are still used to forecast how hot the summer will be and the expected date of the Monsoon and its duration with the possibility of floods and famines being considered as well.

Who needs the weather forecaster when we have such superior instruments at our doorstep !

Just remember the year 1728