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Jantar Mantar Jaipur

About Jantar Mantar
Vital Information for Visitors
Address:

Jantar Mantar, Near City Palace, Tripolia Bazaar, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Open & Close:

Open on all days: 05:00 AM to 09:00 PM

Entry Fees:

INR 50 - for Indians

INR 200 - for foreigners

Duration:

Approx 45 minutes

Built By:

Jai Singh II

Famous For:

Functional stone built solar observatory

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Jantar Mantar was originally called as Yantra Mandir, meaning home to machines. Jantar Mantar is an observatory. This solar observatory, built of stones with metal instruments, in Tripolia Square, adjacent to the city is the most famous and elaborate of the five observatories Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh built in elsewhere in India. Often described as the eighth wonder of the world, here one finds huge instruments capable of arriving at precise astronomical calculations.

A highly imaginative device, spherical walls cut by an inclined stairway pointing exactly to the North Star showed the local time.

Fascinated by science and astronomy, the maharaja of Jaipur Jai Sing II, a fine connoisseur of Astronomy, built this impressive observatory between 1728 and 1733. There are 17 open-air instruments that make up as many sculptures with very contemporary shapes. Each of them has a function, such as the Nari Valaya Yantra, with which one calculates the hours in different parts of the globe, or the Brihat Samrat Yantra, a huge sundial.

Instead of brass or metal instruments, Jai Singh opted for masonry instruments, giving priority to durability and precision over mobility. By making large, immovable instruments, Jai Singh sacrificed facility for supposed accuracy. Another innovation and contribution of Jai Singh is that he himself devised the Samrat Yantra, the Jai Prakash Yantra and the Ram Yantra. In addition to it, the astronomer king used other stone instruments, such as the mural quadrant and cylindrical dial. The Samrat Yantra is, in principle, is very simple form of Sun-Dial, but it is an efficient instrument, and, as Jai Singh designed it, a dignified structure.

The Jai Prakash is called by Jagannath Surya Yantra Shiromani the crest jewel of all instruments. It is a hemisphere, on the concave side of which is mapped out certain co-ordinates. The Jai Prakash is found only at Delhi and Jaipur. The diameter of Jai Prakash at Jaipur is 17 feet 10 inches. The Diganisa Yantra, a simple and useful instrument, is found in Jaipur, Ujjain and Varanasi observatories. This device is formed of a pillar surrounded by two circular walls. The central pillar is generally about 4 feet high, and the inner wall the same height, while the outer wall is twice that height. Cross wires are stretched from the cardinal points on the outer wall, and both walls are graduated. The instrument may be described as a fixed large circular protractor. The Narivalaya Yantra (Circular Dial) is mentioned by Jagannath and it occurs at Jaipur, Ujjain and Varanasi. It may be described as a cylindrical dial—the axis of the cylinder pointing north and south, and the northern and southern faces being parallel to the plane of the equator. The Dakshinovritti Yantra, a Meridian Circle, is a useful and popular -among-other- observatories instrument. This mural quadrant sort of device was found in most mediaeval observatories. It consists, essentially, of a wall in the meridian, and on the wall is two graduated quadrants and centre pins, which were used for observing the altitudes of heavenly bodies when passing the meridian. Originally there was one at each observatory, but that at Delhi has been destroyed.

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