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New Delhi: Delhi’s Jantar Mantar is once again in the news these days. The reason for this is the continuous protests going on here. Today Jantar Mantar is known as a major place of protest, but it was not built for this purpose. Actually, Jantar Mantar was built as an astronomical observatory, after which Jantar Mantar were also built in Jaipur, Varanasi and Ujjain. Do you know who built Jantar Mantar and why? It was built not just as a historical building, but to accurately determine the time, positions of the planets and stars. Even today, four special instruments are present here, all of them have their own distinct function and importance. Let us know the history of Jantar Mantar and the specialty of these unique instruments.

Who got Jantar Mantar built?

Delhi’s Jantar Mantar was built by ‘Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II of Jaipur in 1724’. He had a keen interest in mathematics and astronomy, which is why he built this unique observatory. At that time modern watches and scientific equipment were not available. Therefore, Jantar Mantar was built to know the correct position of time, day, planets and stars. With the help of special instruments installed here, astronomical calculations were done and time was estimated accurately.

Time was told by the light of sun and moon

The special instruments installed in Jantar Mantar were made in such a way that they could tell the correct time with the help of sun and moon light. There were no modern clocks in that period, so people used to find out the time through these scientific instruments.

Many errors started appearing in the astronomical calendars and calculations used at that time. Because of this, it became difficult to decide the right time of festivals and auspicious dates. To overcome these shortcomings, after Delhi, observatories like Jantar Mantar were built in Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura. With the help of these instruments, not only the time but also the position and movement of many planets including Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus were accurately determined.

Weather information was also available

Jantar Mantar was not only useful for knowing the time and position of the planets, but also for predicting solar and lunar eclipses. Through this, many important information to weather and astronomical events was also obtained at that time. Many special equipment have been installed in Jantar Mantar. With their help, time, movement of planets, direction of the Sun and other astronomical activities were studied accurately. The four main instruments present here were made for their different purposes. The function of each instrument was different and it gave different information to time, direction, position of planets and celestial bodies.

4 major instruments of Jantar Mantar

1. Samrat Yantra: This is one of the largest stone sundials in the world. With its help, local time, altitude of the Sun and position of celestial bodies were accurately determined.

2. Jai Prakash Yantra: It is composed of two hemispherical structures. Through this, the exact position of the Sun, stars and other celestial bodies was studied.

3. Ram Yantra: It is made up of two cylindrical (cylinder-like) structures. It was used to measure the altitude and direction of any celestial body.

4. Mixer: It is a combination of five different instruments. With its help, the exact time of noon, the longest and shortest day of the year and also the time of different places were compared.