Ladder to stars

Built by Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur, Jantar Mantars have accurately predicted the position of stars for almost three centuries besides serving as giant masonry clocks that follow the movements of the sun and the moon, writes Mukesh Khosla

Oracles and astrologers have often said that human beings have cosmic origins and their destiny is inextricably linked to stars. Even in the modern world many believe that planets influence a person’s fate. The science of the zodiac is based on this premise.

Natural disasters like earthquakes; floods, volcanic eruptions, droughts and even epidemics have often been blamed on stars. With such an umbilical linkage to the heavenly bodies, both scientists and seers began developing instruments to determine the exact position of stars in a bid to determine how they would influence mankind.

Experts from ancient Babylonia, Egypt and Greece began devising gadgets to measure the stars. The early zodiac calendar was developed around the four elements of earth, water, air and fire. It had 12 signs, each sign being ruled by a planet. Indians, too, developed a fascination for astronomy and there are ample references to stars and planets in the Indian mythology.

But the man who gave a scientific base to these beliefs was Sawai Jai Singh-ll, Maharaja of Jaipur, who built five grand observatories called Jantar Mantar (a corrupted version of Yantra Mantra — Yantra for instrument and Mantra for formula), at Delhi, Jaipur, Varanasi, Ujjain and Mathura. All five observatories were built between 1724 and 1730 A.D. The observatories, in the words of historian V. Balaswaroop are, "monuments that irradiate a dark period of Indian history."

Jai Singh was a genius mathematician and a keen scholar of astronomy. He had the Turkish astronomer Ulugh Beg’s Zij Ulugh Begi, Greek astronomer Ptolemy’s Almagest and several other works translated into Sanskrit and studied them thoroughly. But he found faults in many of these treatises and started propounding his own theories based on his vast studies.

Jai Singh was given the title of Sawai by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Because when it came to matters of science and architecture he was definitely one and a quarter (Sawai in Hindi) times superior to the rest of the world. Based on experience, Jai Singh, after whom Jaipur is named, decided to built an observatory that would predict the position of stars as well as tell about time. He used very few metallic instruments and instead relied on masonry work for his ‘ladders to the stars’. These huge geometric structures were erected in the shape of astronomical instruments and were used to accurately measure the position of stars and their altitude for calculating eclipses and other celestial events. However, for nighttime sightings Jai Singh used metallic instruments, the main one being a sighting tube attached to a circular ring that could be rotated in different directions.

Dr Barry Perlus, Professor of Art, Cornell University, after seeing the Jantar Mantar at Jaipur wrote, "I was struck by how modern it seemed. It’s a representation of the real mechanics of the universe architecturally."

Heritage value

The first Jantar Mantar came up in Delhi in 1724. For seven years the Maharaja kept a close eye on the observatory to ensure that its readings were accurate. Almost 285 years later, it still works with the same precision as it did when it was first built. It is one of the most recognised sites of Delhi. Its heritage value is underscored by the fact that it was the official logo of the 1982 Asian Games.

It is dominated by a huge masonry sundial called the Samrat Yantra, which reflects the local time accurate to half a second. There is the Jai Prakash, designed personally by Jai Singh, that determines the position of the sun and other heavenly bodies. There are two pillars in the observatory that establish the shortest and longest days of the year.

The construction of Jaipur Jantar Mantar, which is the largest stone observatory in the world, started in 1727 and took six years. Like the one at Delhi, this one, too, has a 73-feet-tall sundial Jai Prakash to monitor the movement of celestial objects. Then there is the Ram Yantra, a cylindrical building with an open top and a pillar in its centre. The other instruments include the Samrat Yantra, a 90-foot equinoctial dial, the Digamsha Yantra, a pillar surrounded by two circular walls, and the Narivalaya Yantra, which is a cylindrical dial.

Accuracy & precision

Situated next to the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar is one of the most popular tourist sites in Jaipur. Built in an area of five acres, its imposing instruments have stood the test of time and still fascinate scientists and astronomers around the world for their accuracy.

Though lesser known, the Jantar Mantar in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, also called Vedh Shala, is the most significant as it is only 3 km from the Tropic of Cancer. It is much smaller than Delhi and Jaipur observatories and has just four basic instruments — Samrat Yantra, Nadi Walaya, which measure time, Dignasha Yantra that determines the position of planets and stars and the Bhitti Yantra, a meridian instrument.

The Jantar Mantar at Varanasi also has time measuring and angle-measuring devices like the Krantivritta Yantra, Digansha Yantra, Samrat Yantra, Prakash Yantra and Ram Yantra. However, it is not a popular site among tourists, who come to this holy city. That’s because the place has been reduced to ruins and it is virtually impossible to go through thousands of vendors who have encroached upon the surroundings of the observatory near the Dashashvamedh Ghat.

Though the Varanasi Jantar Mantar is a familiar tale of neglect of an important heritage site, but the fifth observatory built in Mathura has completely disappeared. Thankfully, the observatories at Jaipur and Delhi still stand strong encapsulating the spirit with which they were built. — NF

HOME