Jantar Mantar

Jantar Mantar
Photo by Carlo Sarion.

The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur is a collection of large architectural astronomical instruments.

They were built in the new state capital of Jaipur in the early 18th century on the orders of Prince Jai Singh II. He had constructed a total of five such facilities at different locations, including one in Delhi. The Jaipur observatory is the largest and best-preserved of these. It followed the tradition of Ptolemaic positional astronomy and was designed to observe the sky with the naked eye.

Community Perspective: a haven of quiet from the bustling city outside, but it is quite hard to work out how the various instruments worked except for the huge sundial. The separation of this location from the also inscribed Jaipur City seems rather artificial.

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Nan

Germany - 15-May-19 -

Jantar Mantar by Nan

Jantar Mantar, what a weird name? When I traveled to Jaipur, I didn't really know what to expect. The name sounds more like a joke than something real.

What I found is one of those niche jewels of the world heritage list: an Indian observatory based on architectural astronomical instruments. The architectural part is key here as there were little mechanics or optics involved. Instead, you have the world's largest sundial being able to measure time by 2s due to its size. In comparison the Royal Observatory in Greenwich is tiny.

Interestingly, the site is limited to the observatory. India has in the meantime submitted Jaipur (T) itself as a separate site. The community feedback is rather positive, but to me combining Jaipur and the Jantar Mantar would yield a truly great site and the separation seems rather artificial.

Getting There

I flew in from Bangalore in the morning. I left the next morning on the train to Agra.

A popular tourist option is to do the golden triangle (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur) from Delhi with a driver. You will find plenty of offers for this online.

While You Are There

As mentioned, Jaipur City is a tentative site itself and nominated for 2019. Not to be missed Amer Fort is part of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan world heritage site.

 


Manisha joshi

Mumbai India - 08-Mar-15 -

Truly miraculous janta mantar in jaipur I visited in November 2014. It still shows the correct time the sun dial and yes my little knowledge of astrology also helped me to understand the planetary positions depicted in jantar mantar.


Clyde

Malta - 07-Sep-12 -

Jantar Mantar by Clyde

I visited this WHS in January 2012. This astronomical observation site in Jaipur includes several astronomical instruments of the Mughal period. Quite interesting to visit in the middle of the Pink City.


Solivagant

UK - 01-Aug-10 -

Jantar Mantar by Solivagant

My last visit to the Jantar Mantar at Jaipur was as long ago as 1992 so the accompanying photo has had to be scanned in from a 35mm slide!! But I remember the visit, and indeed the entire stay in Jaipur with pleasure. This is a worthy addition to the list and a visit to Jaipur will bring in many other fine sights too!

India’s Tentative list entry for this site originally listed the existing 4 Jantar Mantars for potential inscription (Jaipur, Delhi, Varanasi and Ujjain – a fifth at Mathura no longer exists) but must have concluded that it was better to concentrate on that at Jaipur. They were all built by Jai Singh, “a regional king under the Mogul Empire”, between 1724-7. Jaipur’s is the largest and, as I remember the one in Delhi many years ago, the better preserved/restored – though the small one in Varanasi situated atop a building is also rather fine and I have never been to Ujjain. They all provide a haven of quiet from the bustling city outside within a walled “park” containing a series (Jaipur has 14) of large (the biggest at Jaipur is 27m tall) and complicated-looking astronomic instruments, known as “Yantras” , each designed to measure some aspect of the passage of heavenly bodies – determining time, predicting eclipses, placing planets etc. My photo is of the “Jai Prakash” – a hemispherical sundial said to be Jai Singh’s “most elaborate and complex instrument”. I would not claim, either at the time of the visit or now, to understand how the various instruments worked - if you want a run down have a look at http://www.jantarmantar.org/Architecture_Science_web.pdf . We didn’t take guide in those “far off” days but I could imagine that doing so or having a good written description of how each instrument worked could add to the visit experience.


Site Info

Full Name
The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur
Unesco ID
1338
Country
India
Inscribed
2010
Type
Cultural
Criteria
2 4 6
Categories
Structure - Science and Education
Link
By ID

Site History

2010 Advisory Body overruled

ICOMOS advised Referral (Management Plan issues)

2010 Inscribed

Locations

The site has 1 locations

Jantar Mantar

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Community Members have visited.

A. Mehmet Haksever AC Adiaro18 Afshin Iranpour Akhilpreeti Alberto Rodriguez Gutierrez Alex Marcean Alexander Barabanov Alexander Lehmann Alexander Parsons Alfons and Riki Verstraeten Ali Zingstra Allison Vies Amitlchoudhuryjbp Andrew Wembridge Andyng-site Ani Anna Wludarska Annalett Swanepoel Anticpantaloon Antlane Anuradha Goyal Ari Kailash Arianna Artur Anuszewski Arw456 Aspasia Atila Ege Bamse Bas Bborders Ben Pastore Bernard Joseph Esposo Guerrero Bin Bob Parda Boj Brendan Carroll Brigitte Huber Carlo Medina Carlo Sarion Carlos Garrido Carolinerowe25 Chen Taotao ChenMing Cheryl Chinmaya Chole Ross Chris Law Claire Bradshaw Claire Taylor Clem C Corbomite Coulpete Craig Harder Daniel Gabi Dasexps David Marton Diggy Donald M Parrish Jr Duesi73 Eldhoelias67 Elisabeth Fransisca Situmorang Els Slots Ferdimerkx Filip Murlak Frederik Dawson Frediehung Garrett Garyrjtaylor Ge zhang George Evangelou GerhardM Gianmarco Gisella Gordon Mitchell Grzegorz Andruszkiewicz HE SHAOMIN Hadrianus Haining Guan Harald T. HaraldOest Houqian Howard Brayer Hrishikesh Htupaz Hyoga IC Iain Jackson Ian Coldwell Ivan Rucek Jacob Choi Jacob Otten Jan-Willem Jana and Matt Janeyvette Janis Janklak Jarek Pokrzywnicki Jason and Corrinna Javier Coro Jean Lecaillon Jeanne OGrady Jeffrey Chai Ran Jezza Joachim Nölte-Baumann Joel on the Road John Westray John booth Johnson Zhao Jonathanfr Jos Schmitz Joshuakirbens Josie Borst Joyce van Soest Jsalda Jsrinivasan Jtb105 Judith Tanner Junwang111 Juropa KAO KeithBailey Kelly Henry Kevin McFarland Klaus Bondar Knut Kokoro Kurt Lauer La caperucita roja LaVale Lara Adler Larry F Lauren Leontine Helleman Lichia Liu tuo Longdutch Loratodorova Lorenzo2022 Lucas Del Puppo Lucio Gorla Ludvan Lukasz Palczewski Luke LOU MMM MSNarayanan MaYumin Maciej Gowin Malgorzata Kopczynska Maltishah100 Marcel staron Marie Morlon Martina Rúčková Marton Kemeny Matthewrw Matthewsharris Mattias Michael Novins Michal Marciniak Michelle.has.murphy Mikko MirksB Mnikish730 MoPython Monica Tasciotti Morodhi Naim Y Nan Nathaniel Chin Nihal Ege Nomad99 Olli-Pekka Turunen PKalnai Pascal Cauliez Patphilly Patrick Matgen Patrik Patrik_globe Paul Hilder Paul Schofield Petteri Philipp Leu Philipp Peterer Phillipmeng Pink Bunny Potsdamer Prasadsawant Priyaranjan Mohapatra Qqalexqq Rahul Rathi RahulSharma Ralf Regele Randi Thomsen Raphael Ravishankar Red Reisedachs Riccardo Quaranta Riomussafer Rob Wilson Robin Frank Roland Ronald Lange Rswood S. Anril Tiatco SHIHE HUANG Sachin Saxondean Sergio Arjona Shandos Cleaver Simisingh3 Simonf Skalec Solivagant Sophie Srfmoyle Stanislaw Warwas Stephen Brooker Stephen S. Kamin Steve Preddy Strogan Sujan Kumar Sun_jianyuan@me.com Super-Sophie Svein Elias Szucs Tamas Tamara Ratz Tammy Gouldstone Tevity The Salmons Thomas Kunz Thomas van der Walt Timonator Timothy C Easton Tlaloc Tonioto Tony H. Tony0001 TravelPeter84 Travelure Travtasy Truls Brekke V&M Vernon Prieto Vicente B. Avanzado Jr. Vincent Cheung Voyager Wait About Walter H. Wang Qin Waxwing Werner Huber Wolfgang Hlousa WolfgangHl YAO WEI Yamen Yuri Samozvanov Zhang xiaozhong Zos M Zoë Sheng Zsuzsanna Forray _johsch_