Jantar Mantar

When Majarajah Sawai Jai Singh built Jantar Mantar in the early 18th century, it was the largest of five observatories across India.

Because of their monumental size, the different instruments at Jantar Mantar attract a great deal of tourist attention.

The astrolabes, celestial spheres, and sundials were thought to have a practical applications in the lives of Jai Singh's subjects: farming, marriage, death. Astrology was the science of the Vedas, the ancient tomes which have become living testaments to the perseverance and transmutation of Indian culture and civilization.

Jai Singh built the instruments on a scale that so large it often confounds the modern viewer. Is this not the hubris of rulers past?

In fact, the instruments were built on a large scale to increase the accuracy of the measurements they gave. Unfortunately for the 1mm increments which are inscribed on many of the instruments at Jantar Mantar, the Sun's penumbra is sometimes as wide as 30mm.

Alas, we are left to admire these instruments as artifacts, more significant for their art than their practical applications.