Interior view of the Jai Prakash at the Jaipur Observatory
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Jai Singh … was the founder of a new capital, named after him Jainagar or Jaipur, which in his time became a centre of learning. G.R. Kaye, The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh
This section of jantarmantar.org features articles, illustrations, and projects to learn more about Jai Singh and his observatories.
Between 1724 and 1727, Maharajah Sawaii Jai Singh II, ruler of the kingdom of Amber in what is now Rajasthan, constructed five astronomical observatories in his native territory of west central India. Passionately interested in mathematics and astronomy, Jai Singh adapted and added to the designs of earlier sight-based observatories to create a unique architecture for astronomical measurement. Jai Singh was influenced primarily by the Islamic school of astronomy, and had studied the work of the great astronomers of this tradition.
Early Greek and Persian observatories contained elements that Jai Singh incorporated into his designs, but the instruments of the Jantar Mantar, as Jai Singh’s observatories have come to be known, are more complex and at much greater scale than any that had come before.