cross
the road from the palaces is the famous JANTAR MANTAR one
of the five observatories in India. Built by Sawai Jai Singh,
this is one of the largest and the best preserved. A passionate
hobby of the king in the field of Astronomy, numerology, insighted
him to execute this observatory and with the help of skilled
labourers, they managed to create a collection of complex
astronomical instruments chiselled out of stone and most of
which continues to provide accurate information to this day.
The most striking instrument is the Brihat Samrat yantra Sundial,
an imposing yellow edifice to the far right of the observatory
complex which has a 27m high gnomon arm set at an angle of
27degree.The shadow this casts moves up to 4m in an hour,
and aids in the calculation of local and meridian pass time
and various attributes of the heavenly bodies, including declination
the angular distance of a heavenly body from the celestial
equator and altitude. This highlight of the observatory has
made it a centre of attraction for the tourist visiting Jaipur.
