Jantar Mantar
Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh was an avid astronomer and mathematician. He built the Jantar Mantar observatories in 5 cities in India. This one in Jaipur, next to his palace, was the last, largest and most accurate. This is also the best preserved with every instrument in perfect working condition except one that is locked in place because visitors would use it as a swing. He built the others as better and better prototypes before embarking on this one. The massive instruments were chiselled out of stone by skilled workers. The largest of these is the 27 meter tall sundial, the largest in the world. This is accurate to 2 seconds as our guide demostrated to us. Many of the other instruments help measure where the heavenly bodies are, what Zodiac period we are in, the elevation of the sun and stars, including the azimuthal angle of the sun. There are two of almost every instrument – a smaller prototype, and a gigantic final instrument – both in working condition. It amazes me that this kind of fine instrumentation was designed, built and tested with the help of uneducated stone workers almost 250 years ago. It really helps to put my software development projects in perspective.
