The Jantar Mantar is an astronomical observatory in Jaipur, built in the early 18th century. It includes an impressive set of twenty main instruments featuring the largest sundials in the world, created predominantly from stone. Designed for the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye, they embody several architectural and instrumental innovations.
Each instrument has a specific function for astronomical measurements. As the sun shines on the giant sundials it’s possible to read the time from the scales. A set of smaller stone instruments each represent the signs of the zodiac.
Some instruments were used to plot how the latitude changes over the course of a year. Each day was plotted but the shadow and read from the grid.
The Jantar Mantar was the vision of a scholarly prince showcasing his knowledge of astronomy and views on cosmology, at the end of the Mughal period.
The observatory became a meeting point for different scientific cultures and gave rise to widespread social practices linked to cosmology. It was also a symbol of royal authority, through its shear scale, it’s control of time, and its astrological forecasting capacities.