Largest Stone-Built Astronomical Observatory,
Jantar Mantar, located near the City Palace in Jaipur city, is the largest stone-built astronomical observatory in the world. Which was built by King Sawai Jai Singh in 1727-33. It is also included in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites due to its rich cultural, heritage, and scientific value.
The major machines located at Jantar Mantar in Jaipur are: –
1 – Brihat Samrat Yantra. (Can measure local time with accuracy up to 2 seconds)
2 – Small Emperor Yantra.
3 – Jayaprakash Yantra.
4 – Ramayana. (Used to measure local coordinates of elevation and azimuth of a celestial object)
5 – Dhruvayantra.
6 – Dakshinayantra.
7 – Radiography
8 – Horoscope.
9 – Direction.
10 – Miniature Yantra.
11 – Lankranti Yantra.
12 – Rajyantra.
13 – Unlimited machine.
14 – Digansh Yantra.
15 – Revolutionary machine.
16 – Yantra Raj.
Jantar Mantar is a collection of various architectural and astronomical instruments with 19 major geometric tools including instruments for measuring time, detecting planetary deflections, predicting eclipses, and tracking stars in orbits.
Jantar Mantar stands proudly as a witness to the wisdom and mathematical skills of a bygone era, which attracts tourists visiting here.
The main purpose of building this huge observatory was to gather and study information about space and time.
Jantar Mantar also has many copper-made devices that still function accurately today.
On the basis of the calculation of these instruments of Jantar Mantar, even today the local almanac of Jaipur is published and every year, Ashada Purnima, astronomers predict rainfall from the process of ‘wind perception’.