Jantar Mantar – Must Visit Place in Jaipur for Tourists

Jantar Mantar is one of the biggest observatories ever built in the world and blends religion, science, and art in an elegant fashion. There are mainly five observatories in New Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura which are called all Jantar Mantar. These were all built by Maharaja of Jaipur- Sawai Jai Singh II during the 1720's due to his fascination for science. The one at Jaipur is the largest among the five hosting the world's biggest sundial. There are many hotels in Jaipur providing accommodation to visiting tourists near Jantar Mantar.

1. History

Maharaja Jai Singh II was an enthusiast in the field of astrology and a prodigious scholar. He did his schooling on various topics ranging from philosophy, astrology to architecture and religion. He was even proficient with mathematical concepts like Euclid's Clements, works of Aryabhatta and Ptolemy's Syntaxes. Due to these, he was keen to build an observatory which made him study astronomy. He was successful in building five of those in different parts of North India. The main aim was to record astronomical observations and to collect scientific data from those. The one at Jaipur was renowned for housing several instruments collecting astronomical phenomena's like precise measurement of time, sunrise, and sunset, the azimuth, and locations of constellations. Due to its erroneous observations, the observatory at Jaipur couldn't last more than seven years.

2. Architecture

The Jantar Mantar at Jaipur comprises fourteen main geometric devices for measurement of time, observation of orbits around the sun and for constellations tracking. Some common edifices include the 'Samrat Yantra', the 'Jaiprakash Yantra' and the 'Hindu Chhatri'. The 'Samrat Yantra' also popularly known as the sun-dial is a gigantic structure yellowish in color having a 27m long arm placed at 27 degrees angle. The observatory is truly a shining example of modern art known to probe the 'universe'.