Monuments of India: Jantar Mantar

In ancient India, science made significant strides. Modern scholars agree that what we now refer to as plastic surgery was, in essence, practiced by the great surgeon Susruta around two thousand years ago. Additionally, ancient sages accumulated extensive knowledge in both astronomy and astrology. However, scientific interest in these fields waned over the centuries.

In the early 18th century, Raja Jai Singh II of Jaipur endeavored to revive this interest. He constructed observatories in Jaipur, Delhi, Varanasi, Mathura, and Ujjain. Among these, the Jantar Mantar in Delhi stands out as the most famous and showcases the ingenuity of that era.

The largest of the instruments erected at Jantar Mantar is a sundial known as the Samrat Yantra. This remarkable timekeeping device, along with other instruments, reveals the movements of the sun, moon, and various planets, reflecting the advanced astronomical knowledge of ancient India.