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The Jantar Mantar was
built in 1710 by Raja Jai Singh II of Jaipur in Delhi.
This is an observatory consisting of mason built astronomical
instruments to chart the course of the heavens. Jai Singh, who
was a very scholarly king with a very eager interest in
astronomy and astrology, had other observatories built also in
Ujjain, Jaipur, Mathura and Varanasi. Under support from
the emperor, he set on himself the task of correcting the
accessible astronomical tables and updating the directory with
more reliable instruments. Delhi's Jantar Mantar is the first of
the five observatories that he built with large masonry
instruments.
The first amongst these was this one in Delhi. The yantras
are built of brick rubble and plastered with lime. The yantras
have suggestive names like, samrat yantra, jai prakash, ram
yantra and niyati chakra; each of which are used to for
different astronomical calculations.
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