Skip This Part at Your Peril!
We live and learn. No. Allow me to rephrase this. We are born, live, hope to learn and die. Most of us pass through the learning stage as fast as possible and die. Damn. I sound morose, salty (an extra word my wife picked up), and cynical. I am neither of these things and diverted all of you for fun. Why? Because I can–I think.
Though I refer to myself as a Delhi chap (a Dilliwallah), I have not lived in the National Capital Region much. Still, since I must plant my roots somewhere, I planted them in Delhi–until I uproot myself again.
About ten years back, I discovered Jaipur houses the largest Jantar Mantar. Then, I discovered Benares (some people call it Varanasi) also houses a small Jantar Mantar. This discovery shocked me because, until then, I had visited Benares over fifty times. Do you understand what I mean when I use the phrase, 'hope to learn'?
How Jaipur Got Its Name
Like our good friend Bertie Wooster, some of you may wonder why I have been babbling about the Jantar Mantar without explaining it. First, let me explain how the city of Jaipur got its name. One of the greatest kings of Jaipur was Maharaja Jai Singh II, who lived between 1693 CE and 1744 CE. He became king when he was eleven years old. Today, we complain when owners of large conglomerates appoint their children to senior positions without putting them through the grind. An astrologer told his father, Jai Singh II would become a great king, which he did. Jai Singh II received an excellent education and became a fantastic king, warrior, and astronomer. His father trained him well.
Jai Singh II employed a Bengali architect, Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, to design the old parts of the city, which were built in pink sandstone. The pink sandstone gives Jaipur its name: "The Pink City.” Vidyadhar applied ancient Indian architectural techniques from texts called "The Shilpa Shastra."
Today, Jaipur is amongst India's best-planned cities, especially the old parts. Considering the old architect and king built it almost three centuries ago, you may marvel at their planning. Then, once you finish applauding them, think of Jahanara–Shah Jahan's daughter–who designed the Chandni Chowk in Delhi almost four centuries ago; neither visualized how the human, vehicular, and cattle population would explode. Yet, their designed places sustain India's chaotic and noisy traffic today.
The Jantar Mantar of Jaipur
Maharaja Jai Singh II built astronomical observation sites (Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain and Benares). The Jantar Mantar of Jaipur houses nineteen structures. The structures allow an astronomer to track astronomical positions with the naked eye. Maintenance can be better, but I read that the relevant authorities recalibrated the instruments some years back. You will find the world's largest sundial on the premises.
Why did the king call these collections' the Jantar Mantar'? 'Jantar' comes from the Sanskrit, 'yantra' which means 'instrument. 'Mantar' comes from the Sanskrit, 'mantrana', meaning 'to calculate.' Therefore, when you combine the two, you derive the name–' calculating instrument.' Jantar Mantar sounds much better than 'yantra mantrana' or 'mantrana yantra.' The excellent king's name also starts with the letters' J' and 'A.' I speculate when I state he wanted the name to connect the site with his name. When you consider his impressive achievement, no one ought to grudge him the name.
Most tourists are not astronomers, and I include myself in that group. Astronomy did not inspire me to visit the Jantar Mantar. I walked around, looking at the descriptions of the instruments, each explaining the instrument's purpose. The explanations sailed far above my head.
Why Did the Jantar Mantar Pique My Interest?
Two forces motivated me to visit the Jantar Mantar: one, curiosity. I'd visited the Jantar Mantar in Delhi several times, and my discovery of the one in Jaipur piqued my interest—the second factor: photography.
The Jantar Mantar will be a happy hunting ground if you love abstract shapes and shadows. Juxtapose angles, curves, shapes, backgrounds, and shadows; you can spend a day exploring photographic opportunities.
While writing this, the urge to visit the Delhi Jantar Mantar is bubbling. A friend and I need to meet for lunch in a few weeks, and the restaurant we intend to grace (my ego and I) is close to Jantar Mantar.
The Jantar Mantar and Photography
Delhi's Jantar Mantar is built in red stone, attracting me more than the Jaipur structure. The shapes, colors, and warm afternoon light are a perfect combination. Local stone and marble form the bulk of the material for Jaipur's instruments. Shadows remain muted, and you can create photographs of considerable delicacy. A thought enters my brain as I type: why not convert my photos to black and white? My brain works best in monochrome, and this exercise can be fun.
Soon, I will create a post comparing monochrome images of the three sites I am familiar with.
Connections. Ulugh Beg, Maharaja Jai Singh II and Babu.
While reading Richard Eaton's magnificent book, "India in The Persianate Age," I discovered Ulugh Beg's observatory in Samarkand inspired Maharaja Jai Singh II (pages 389 to 390) to build his own. Who, you may ask, was Ulugh Beg? He was Tamerlane's grandson and lived between 1394 CE and 1449 CE. Focused more on his scientific, cultural, and astronomical work, he was not a skilled administrator. Members of his family overthrew him and assassinated him.
Babur, the first Mughal Emperor, descended from Tamerlane on his paternal side and Genghis Khan on his maternal side. The Mughals and the British called the dynasty "The House of Timur." The word "Mughal" is a corruption of the word "Mongol," I bet the Mughals never referred to themselves as Mughals.
Knowledge Diffuses.
We like to believe that, with the dawn of the Internet, knowledge diffuses faster than lightning. This belief is half true, especially with the spread of propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation. Data diffuses across the world, but knowledge is another matter.
I listened to an audiobook, "Horizons," by James Poskett, in which he discusses the origins of modern Western science. Scientists and thinkers worldwide have inspired much Western science, which people like Galileo and Newton often acknowledge. Of course, in modern times, when nationalism is rising, everyone wishes to arrogate all knowledge. Indian politicians like to brag that we invented the internet thousands of years ago. They don't have an answer to explain why India's internet network has disappeared since then.
Ulugh Beg's inspiration traveled across three centuries and 1,634 kilometers to motivate Maharaja Jai Singh II to build his observatory. If you read this article on Wikipedia, you will note a comment from the contributors, casting doubt on the accuracy of the instruments in Jantar Mantar. They state the masons who constructed the instruments were unfamiliar with astronomical principles, so they made a few errors in the construction. Knowledge must travel horizontally, spatially, across time, and vertically.
I ought to stop here; otherwise, you will fall asleep while reading my long lecture on the dissipation of knowledge, or 'gyan,' as we say in India.
Ending Paragraph
When you stand in the center of the Jantar Mantar, you will see the rear side of the Hawa Mahal on one side and Nahargarh Fort on the other. The City Palace is next to the site. Everything was contiguous with each other. You didn't need expensive cars to move from one side to another. Today, the traffic is so bad that large, expensive cars may be a liability. The humble cycle rickshaw is the way to travel!
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