ASIANOVERLAND.NET LONDON TO SYDNEY  DAY 332: JANTAR MANTAR, JAIPUR TO FATEPORE SIKRI, INDIA

The Jantar Mantar at Jaipur includes 19 astronomical instruments built by the Rajput King Sawai Jai Singh II, who noticed that the Zij, a Persian or Islamic table used for determining the position of celestial objects, did not match other calculation methods. He constructed five new observatories in different cities in order to create a more accurate Zij.

The Jaipur Jantar Mantar was built between 1728 and 1738. It features the world's largest stone sundial at an angle of 27 degrees - the same latitudinal angle as Jaipur is to the equator, so it gives a direct line from sunlight towards the centre of the earth. The massive sundial’s shadow moves visibly by 1mm every second and by a handwidth (6 cm) every minute. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The instruments allow the observation and tabulation of astronomical positions with the naked eye.

The earliest discussion of astronomical instruments, gnomon and clepsydra, is found in ancient first millennium BCE Sanskrit texts, which discuss the methodology for the gnomon built at Jantar Mantar.

The Jaipur Jantar Mantar features instruments operating in each of the three main classical celestial coordinate systems: the horizon-zenith local system, the equatorial system, and the ecliptic system. The Kanmala Yantraprakara works in two systems and allows transformation of the coordinates directly from one system to the other.

Fatehpur Sikri was founded as the capital of Mughal Empire in 1571 by Emperor Akbar, and was capital of the Mughal Empire from 1571 to 1585, when Akbar abandoned it to fight a campaign in Punjab. It was later completely abandoned in 1610.

The reason for its abandonment is usually given as the failure of the water supply (our guide told us this), although Akbar's loss of interest may also have been the reason, as it was built on his whim.

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