Akin to a giant, crazy golf course, this set of fourteen outsized astronomical instruments was built by Maharajah Jai Singh II between 1728 and 1735. The shadows tracking across their bronze dials and embedded marble markings measure time and the position of the sun, moon, planets and stars with extraordinary accuracy. Still in use today by astronomy students, Vedic astrologers also make use of the instruments to calculate auspicious dates for events such as weddings. Under the strong sun of Jaipur, Jantar Mantar’s crisp abstracted architectural forms, looking like Oscar Niemeyer out-takes, have a strangely modern feel: perfect architectural manifestations of form following function. I (rgw)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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