Jantar Mantar

Architecture, Astronomy, and Solar Kingship in Princely india

Bonnie G. MacDougall The gigantic masonry astronomical instru- world. Although there are reports or remains of
ments built by the Maharaja Jai Singh of Jaipur earlier massive instruments in the Near East or
(1688-1743) are among the most startling and Central Asia, most notably at Samarkand, Jai
visually compelling monuments in the entire Singh's designs are for the most part without
Indian architectural record. As staples on the known formal precedent in India or elsewhere.
"must see" list of historians, practitioners, and The better known and largest of Jai Singh's
students of architecture who pass through India observatories are easily accessible to the trav-
these Jantar Mantars, as the observatories are eler (fig. 4). The most widely visited complex.
known colloquially, are perhaps second only to now meticulously maintained by the Govern-
the Taj Mahal as perennial attractions. The ment of India, lies in the heart of New Delhi, the
Swiss architect Le Corbusier mounted a sculp- national capital, surrounded by palms in a small
tural element drawn from one of the massive park near the Imperial Hotel. A second and even
instruments atop a hyperbolic cone of his assem- larger complex is located within the palace
bly building at Chandigarh (fig. 3), and it seems precincts (once those of Jai Singh himself) at
safe to say that these spare and bold geometric Jaipur, the capital of the modern Indian state of
forms, variously described as ultramodern, sur- Rajasthan in northwest India, which lies a few
real and mysterious, have stirred interest in the hours by rail from New Delhi. Three other
South Asian landscape as no others. similar but smaller complexes were also con-
The power of these astronomical instru- structed by Jai Singh elsewhere in northern
ments to arrest the viewer derives in part from India-at Benares, Ujjain, and Matura. The last
their stylistic departure from the rest of the Indian of these is unfortunately no longer extant.1
architectural legacy, especially traditional Hindu Many casual visitors to the Delhi complex are
forms. Hindu architecture is most closely identi- unaware that the Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh was a
fied with temples that are cloaked in profuse man of considerable personal and political ambi-
sculpture with few surfaces left unworked, and tion who left his signature on an architectural
the structures at the observatories are stark and legacy that was even more extensive. His largest
unadorned. Programmatically, the works at the project was the design and building of Jaipur (c.
observatories are also detached from the architec- 1727), which has served as a regional center from
tural record in India whose major buildings in- the eighteenth century until the present day. The
clude temples, mosques, palaces, and tombs. construction of a new town on such a scale was
Prior to Jai Singh's time, observational instru- unprecedented in the annals of Indian town plan-
ments were not interpreted architecturally either ning. Its design, especially its east-west ceremonial
singly or in groups. Astronomers in India, like axis and its rectilinear grid pattern, was also re-
their counterparts in the Near East and Europe markable. Formally and conceptually, Jaipur was
relied on astrolabes and other hand-held instru- without parallel in India until the twentieth century,
ments of smaller proportions. Indeed, the forms when an international team headed by the Swiss
at the observatories are serendipitous finds, like modernist Le Corbusier designed Chandigarh, a
rare birds of paradise, and they are unique in the new town with which it has often been compared.

16
1 Samral Yantrajaipui from the intcnoi oi (he Jai Prakash Y cises in which Jai Singh was also engaged will
2 Samrat Yantra.Delhi Reading the observatories: assist us in this reading, as will a generous
3 Palace of Assembly, Chandiparh
the literal level detour into the public construction of Hindu
kingship and the inner workings of Indian
The astronomical instruments at the obser- cuUure.
vatories are in effect texts that can be read on For all their differences, the observato-
two different levels, the first literal, and the ries and the city of Jaipur were ideationally
second broadly allegorical in construction and linked. Products of the same fertile imagina-
declamatory in intent. The first reading is tion, they referred to the same symbolic lan-
derived from Jai Singh's own statements. He guage and were instrumentalized by Jai Singh
left an account of his intentions in the intro- as part of a broader political agenda. The
duction to his well-known astronomical tables, Maharaja engaged in a wide range of archi-
the Zij Muhammed Shahi. Jai Singh, he ex- tectural, ceremonial, and political activities
plained (referring to himself in the third per- which he orchestrated through a common
son), built the observatories to provide more body of tropes, especially solar allegories,
precise readings of the positions and move- that linked him as a worldly sovereign with
ments of the known planets, the fixed stars, the celestial and the divine. He managed to
the sun and the moon, so as to construct make his own vision of his singular authority
almanacs in the service of religion and the other-worldly connections intelligible to his
state. Then as now in South Asia, astrological subjects and perhaps to his regional rivals
tndia considerations were central to all important through many redundant tracts. The works
undertakings from marriages to military ma- at the observatories that projected him as the
neuvers. Jai Singh built large masonry instru- mastermind of a set of colossal scientific
ments, he said because experiments with small instruments that clocked the heavenly bod-
ones had produced inaccurate readings. Fi- ies as they along through their paths sug-
nally he said that Jai Singh had erected the gested that his main connections with the
instruments at various locations in North India universal were empirically or scientifically
so that as many astronomers as possible could derived. However, Jai Singh also projected
make their own observations, in the service of his sovereign authority through celestial al-
science. lusions that were referentially mythic. For
example, he claimed to be descendant from
The underlying text the sun, and he engaged in grandiose sacri-
fices and ceremonial activities in which he
Looking beyond considerations of func- portrayed himself, like the sun or the gods
tion, composition, or style to areas of underly- that ensured its eternal return, as an agent of
ing meaning, we may discern a social and cosmic rejuvenation. In fact, the structures at
political intent to this unique architectural pro- the observatories embroidered the mytho-
gram. Examination of other declamatory exer- logical dimension of the solar narrative, al-

The Cornell Journal of Architecture/ MACDOIH 17

 (hough the evocative paradigms were in- on three instrument types whose designs are
scribed in deft and subtle ways. The instru- known to be original: the Samrat Yantra
ments not only projected the Maharaja as a (supreme instrument, a sundial) the Jai
"master of time" through the conventional Prakash Yantra (light of Jai instrument, an
channels of observation and science, but they armillary sphere) and the Ram Yantra (Rama1 s
also were named and troped so as to identify instrument) all of which are found at both
them with the rhetoric ofthe world-renewing Jaipur and Delhi, (figs. 6 and 7). The nomen-
sacrifices through which Jai Singh aligned clature of these instruments is of interest and
his worldly authority with that of the gods. further distinguishes them as a set. Whereas
The city of Jaipur, which reproduces ele- the rest ofthe instruments are named for their
ments of a cosmic plan with the palace of the form or function, the names of these three
Maharaja and his observatory at its very cen- instrument types, all conferred by Jai Singh,
ter, enriches this narrative, instrumentalizing are related allegorically to solar rites and
themes from Hindu cosmology to project the themes.
Maharaja as the worldly counterpart of the
divine ruler. It also instrumentalized the The political setting and the solar
tools and precepts of Islamic astronomy to lineage of Jai Singn
aggrandize his reputation as a divinely in-
spired scientist. Jai Singh ascended the throne of the
princely state of Amber at the age of eleven in
The major instruments at the 1699. His kingdom was one of a number of
observatories small tributary Hindu states in northern India
that owed political allegiance to the Mughals,
A birds-eye view of the observatory the Islamic rulers who entered India from
grounds of the largest complex at Jaipur Central Asia, governed it from 1526 to 1858,
shows approximately a score of masonry and left an indelible stamp on its literature,
instruments of various scales arranged in the architecture, and art. During most of the first
park with the palace as a backdrop (fig. 5). two decades of his reign as the Maharaja or
At Delhi, the many smaller forms of Jaipur 'great ruler' of Amber, Jai Singh was engaged,
are lacking, and the complex is organized as his immediate forebearers had been, in
around four instrument types, all of them military campaigns, sometimes in the service
massive. Unfortunately, precise historical of the Mughal emperors who were seated at
records regarding the development of the Delhi, and sometimes as their foe. Over these
observatories from Jai Singh's time to the years, he consolidated his power in the region,
present were not kept. In fact, modern un- dramatically enlarged the territory under his
derstandings of Jai Singh's role as a planner personal control, ingratiated himself with the
and astronomer, and his conduct of rites of imperial authorities, and emerged as an influ-
state, are drawn largely from legendary re- ential spokesman for regional interests at the
constructions of the past rather than from Delhi court. Beginning around 1720. he turned
state records or contemporaneous eye-wit- his attention first to building programs and
ness reports. Although it is not a matter on later to sacrifices that would be the visible
which the contemporary promotional litera- expressions of his new found influence and
ture intended primarily for tourists lingers. power.
many of the forms, especially at Jaipur, were The Kacchawa Rajputs, the family to
actually additions made between the time which Jai Singh belonged, had fully formu-
Jai Singh died in 1743 and the late nine- lated theories about their cosmographic loca-
teenth century. Who built them, when, and tion in the universe as well as about their
in what sequence is a historical puzzle that celestial connections long before they made
cannot be pieced together completely. Here use of town planning and astronomy to project
we shall therefore focus principal attention them. They claimed descent through the

18
 heroes of Hindu mythology from the sun.
They traced their line to Kusha, the son of The Hindu cosmoioaical model,
Lord Rama, the legendary hero of the great town planning, and me 'solar3
Hindu epic the Ramayana who, was the quint- city of Jaipur
essential example of"the ideal Hindu regent, as
well as, according to tradition, one of the The fusion of the divine order with the
incarnations of the god Visnu. Since Rama's sociopolitical one was eventually clarified ar-
line was said to extend back to Surya, the sun chitecturally in South Asian architecture and
god, the Kacchawa Rajputs referred to them- planning theory (silpa sastra), which is the
selves as a solarrace. Their illustrious lineage subject of a generous body of literature in San-
was extolled by the nineteenth-century court skrit, the Latin of South Asia and the vehicle of
poet Krishnadatta in his poem the Pralap Hindu tradition and liturgy. The formal prin-
ry grounds. Jaipur; View from the summit of the Sam
Prakasa. "Only the thousand headedShesha2 ciples contained in silpa sastra were rooted in
or Narada3 can describe the lineage of this an ancient tradition of altar building dating from
ry.Dchh; View looking southward from Samrat Yantt
ntra, Jaipur; View from the west
race. No poet or pandit is competent to do Vedic times, but their development and codifi-
so,"4 he wrote. But, undaunted, he proceeded cation as a science applying to town planning,
to trace the Kachhawas through all four of the architecture, and iconography occurred rela-
Hindu ages: tively late in the Indian experience (c. 700 A.D.
"The family starts from Brahma,3 and thereafter), after a major temple-building
Kashyapa6 and the Sun. In Satyayuga,7 tradition had begun to emerge. The silpa sastra
Dhundhumara* and Mandhata9 were literature, which prescribed geometrical, gener-
cakravartins10 and there was Bhagiratha1' who ally rectilinear formats for major building types
brought Shri. Ganga12 on the. earth. In Treta,13 and towns, was invested with sacred authority.
kings Dilipa,14 Raghu,15Aja16 andDasharatha'7 Its prescriptions were variously believed to be
were born and the family was exalted by the based on other-worldly models revealed by gods
birth of Shri Ramachandra [-Rama] the in- to sages or actually composed by divinities such
carnation of God, who built a bridge over the as the architect of the gods, Visvakarma him-
sea and installed Vibhishana as king of Lanka self. The geometry of the ideal town also
after killing Ravana.18 King Asivarma and expressed certain ideals of rank and hierarchy
Prashasvata of the Dvapara age are well known that were viewed as divinely sanctioned. The
in the Puranas. I have given this description in rectilinear plan was to support residential areas
short." segregated according to occupation or caste, for
Accounts that linked kings with the great example, with the highest-ranking groups in the
heroes of the Hindu epics were common ritual order given the best and most auspicious
enough in the tributary states of medieval locations. In an ordinary town the principal
princely India. In fact, the identification of the temple was to be placed at the center of the plan,
cosmological order with the political one dates whereas in a fortified capital city, the palace of
from the ancient Vedic19 period and i s as old as the king was to be located there.20 The city of
lndo-Aryan civilization in India itself. Ac- Jaipur is not actually areproduction of any of the
cording to tradition, gods lived in heavenly idealized town plans laid down in the silpa
cities and regulated the moral and temporal sastra literature, which are usually composed
order of the universe; monarchs lived in of concentric rectangles rather that self-con-
worldly ones and used their political authority tained blocks. However, certain features of its
to safeguard the social and moral order on organization show a loose ideational congru-
earth. From the Vedic period onward, the ence, especially the location of the most impor-
divine order was linked to the worldly one tant political or ritual complexes at the center.
through ritual, especially through the regen- At Jaipur, the palace of the Maharaja is located
erative action of the sacrifice which enlisted at the geographical center of the city and a
the everlasting order on high in the perpetua- popular temple dedicated to Govinda (Krishna)
tion of the state. enclosed within its precincts (fig.8).21

The Cornell Journal of Architecture/ MAt 19

 Despite the emphasis on total planning in
the silpa sastras, communities in India typically
grew haphazardly, and this may help to explain
why they seldom expressed the ideal geometries
executed at smaller scales, especially in the
temple plan. In the medieval period, there was
only one clear precedent for a 'new town' in
north India: the royal enclave of the Mughal
emperor Akbar constructed at Fatehpur Sikri in
the sixteenth century. It seems very likely that
Jai Singh's interest in a holistic urban format as
a projection of his sovereign authority may have
been stimulated by this imperial example, but a
comparison of the plan of Fatehpur Sikri and
that of Jaipur shows no congruence. Fatehpur
Sikri was essentially a royal citadel, not a holis-
tic urban design, and the axial roadways and the
geometry of the neighborhood structure found
at Jaipur are completely lacking.
Itis precisely because Jai Singh'scity seems
to have had no clear formal precedent in the
landscape of urban Tndia that it has become
widely viewed as an exemplary and unique
revival of the principles from the sastras. The
revival of textually sanctioned practices, both of
a ritual and architectural nature, was in fact a
hallmark of Jai Singh's reign, through which he
systematically aligned his kingship with the
venerable traditions of the Hindu past. The
translation from precept to form, is generally
assumed to have been made by Vidyadhar. a
Bengali brahmin who served as the chief archi-
tect and engineer of the city. Vidyadhar (Bearer
of Sacred Knowledge) evidently had broad au-
thority over the development of Jaipur, includ-
ing the design and execution of the detailed
plan, the construction of the palace and other
state buildings, and the approval of buildings
constructed in the private sector. In a Sanskrit
work composed by the court poet Kri shna Bhatta
in 1749, Vidyadhar is said to have been "well
versed in the arts" and to have been held in high
esteem for his virtues, which were compared in
scope to the ocean.22 According to the poet,
when Jai Singh lay dying, he placed his son and
heir in the lap of the architect in the presence of
all his ministers.
Otherwise very little is known about
Vidyadhar or his relationship with Jai Singh,
and in hindsight it is remarkable that his contri-

20
 bution has been so generously acknowledged. The perpendicular (north-south) axis is then kingdom (the rastrabhrt ceremony), the term
Indian monarchs who embarked on major build- drawn, a circle inscribed, and angles bisected so
'fixed' (dhruva), which otherwise referred to
ing programs generally represented themselves as to mark the minor directions. Inasmuch as the Pole Star and the stable north, referred to
as the builders and gave little or no credit to certain features (rooms in dwellings, or caste oblations intended to 'steady' the state. The
subordinate architects, with the result that the quarters in towns, for example) have prescribed oblations were made into the fire over the wheel
names of very few of them linger in memory. directional affiliations, the proper construction
of a chariot, an iconographic representation of
Vidyadhar's embellished reputation, however, the sun, cyclic renewal, and kingship.26 The
of the axes is essential, according to the texts.
permitted the story that Jai Singh wove about his Altars, ritual diagrams, and the form of the inner
fixed norm and the east-west path of the course
kingship to be embroidered in a particular way. sanctum of the Hindu temple are built up on of the sun that are triangulated and made visible
An acknowledged architect invited comparison systems of squaring that embody these basic in the J aipur city plan were thus instrumentalized
with the divine craftsman Visvakarma, who principles of alignment. The association of the metaphorically in the sovereign rites. Like
according to tradition built palaces and cities for perfect square with rites as well as with the inner
other Indian cities that have grown up overtime,
the gods. More specifically, Visvakarma is said form of the temple seems to be responsible for Jaipur is historically layered and thus a formal
to have executed the design of the palace of the widespread but erroneous belief that the collage. There are four other gates (for a total of
Indra, the tutelary god of the Indo-Aryans,2:i a square was also advanced in the sastras as the seven) placed at irregular positions in the city
figure to whom Jai Singh liked to compare template for the ideal town.24 In fact, authorita-
walls, but none of the others belongs to the
himself. The unusual emphasis on the relation- celestial paradigm.27
tive texts describe the ideal royal city as rectan-
ship between the architect and the sovereign gular.25 At the rough geographic center of the city
thus evoked a familiar divine model. In this way The plan of the city of Jaipur alludes to the
immediately to the north of the east-west axis
Vidyadhar was instrumentalized so as to align anticipated rectilinear outline in a suggestive lies the block that encloses the palace of the
Jai Singh with Indra himself. triangulation, but without completely express- Maharaja, the tempi e of Govrnda, and the obser-
The foundation ceremony for the city of ing it. The most important element is the 108- vatory grounds. A great deal has been made of
Jaipur took place in 1727, and by the mid- 1730s foot-wide axial road running east to west, trac-the position of the palace; it has been compared
the capital was relocated from its previous loca- ing the path of the sun. It terminates at the by modern writers to Mount Meru, because of
tion at Amber, the royal citadel developed by Jai eastern wall in a "Sun Gate" and on the west in its pivotal location in the city plan. The plan of
Singh's forebears a few miles to the north. As a "Moon Gate," as shown in (fig. 8). The Jaipuris now commonly experienced as a square
the most elaborate project in Jai Singh's build- celestial north is marked by the Druv Pol (Pole mandala, albeit a deformed one, of nine squares
ing program, Jaipur became a principal vehicle Star Gate), which lies off-center in the plan and
representing "the nine divisions of the uni-
through which the Maharaja projected the di- leads in the general direction of Delhi. In Hindu
verse," that is, the eight major and minor direc-
vine antecedents of his singular authority. Three cosmology, the Pole Star is accorded a special tions of space in plane and the vertical axis at the
elements of the composition are of special inter- significance because of its 'fixed' (Sanskrit center.2* In fact, although the triangulation of
est: (a) a central solar axis, (b) named gates that dhruva) position. It is often described as shining
the three celestial gates and a whole host of other
allude to celestial paradigms, and (c) a centrally above Mount Meru, the immovable central axi s 'clues' scattered over the city no doubt prompt
located palace complex. of the uni verse—die gnomon of the world as it such an interpretation, it is necessary to engage
The Hindu model of the cosmos, widely were, and the home of die gods. The city plan in some complicated visual gymnastics in order
reproduced on the scale of the temple com- thus reinterprets in plane the triangulation of to read the plan in this way. The internal blocks,
pound, is walled, quincunx in plan, and oriented the three cardinal points that is expressed in none of which is actually square, are organized
to the major and minor directions with the reduced scale by the Samrat Yantra, the astro- so as to make the perimeter irregular. The
godhead at the center. The silpa sastras place nomical instrument that is common to all the jagged outline is sometimes ascribed to topo-
a considerable amount of emphasis on the orien- observatories, and the largest structure in the graphical constraints which allegedly made it
tation of the site or building so as to align it with complex at Jaipur. The gnomon of this instru- necessary to dislocate the northwest block to the
the proper directions in space and hence with the ment is a triangular form whose hypotenuse extreme southeast and hence to transform the
cosmic model. All axes are essentially gener- slopes to the celestial north. It is flanked by underlying structure. This is not the only inter-
ated from a single line lhat is drawn by connect- giant winged quadrants lying in the east-west pretive obstacle in "seeing" the fully realized
ing the east and west points of the shadow of the plane, parallel at Jaipur to the ceremonial axis nine-part mandala. Jaipur can just as easily be
sun cast by a gnomon (in practice, usually a of the city. construed as composed of seven or perhaps
small stick of wood or ivory) that is erected on In the traditions of Hindu kingship, the eight divisions rather than nine, depending on
the site. Some texts also recommend using the fundamental directional triangulation expressed how one counts. For those who see seven as a
Pole Star as a additional marker so as to triangu- architecturally at Jaipur was also interpreted significant number, another allegory, also refer-
late the trace of the sun with the celestial north. ritually. In the Vedic rite of upholding the entially solar, comes into play. Seven was the

The Cornell Journal of Architecture/ MACD 21

 number of horses used to pull the single-wheeled Humayan in Delhi (Figure 9) has been very
vehicle of the sun god (or of Indra) through the persistent and has entered into the historical
heavens, and this reading locates the Maharaja literature as fact. Tillotson reports that the
at the center of seven blocks (perhaps as the archives at the City Palace Museum in Jaipur
charioteer). Confirmation of seven as contain early drawings showing the city di-
numerologically signficant in the urban organi- vided into nine equal squares and provides a
zation of Jaipur is provided by the seven-storied stylized reproduction of them.'0 No other
Chandra Mahal (Jai Singh's palace) as well as source including Roy (1978), who has written
by the seven extant gates in the walls of the old the most comprehensive work on the history
city. of the city, has remarked on them, however.
It seems beyond question that the many Tillotson may have been referring to a highly
solar and cosmological elements and motifs stylized diagram or chart, possibly of recent
expressed in the plan itself, by the observatories date, showing Jaipur and its tributary lands
and by supporting iconography have stimulated highly stylized as organized on an eight-part
subsequent readers of the city to add interpretive wheel or mandala pattern with the palace
embellishments of their own, and that is, in block and eight named gates surrounding it at
itself, of great interest. Elements that are struc- the center (fig. 10).3i This chart reproduces
turally or visually anomalous or discordant, the administrative organization of Jaipur state,
even the outline of the city itself, can therefore perhaps for revenue purposes as Gole (1989)

Jk m be resolved intellectually through reference to a

more comprehensive, redundantly encoded cos-
mological text. Nonetheless, the claims that a
has noted, but it is not in any sense a topo-
graphical map of the city nor a working draw-
ing. It is of interest because it augments the
system of squaring representing the nine divi- number of gates and otherwise regularizes the
sions of the universe or a seven-block pattern city as a nine-part entity, although not one
metaphorically related to the solar chariot were made up of square blocks. It suggests that the
the underlying structures from which Jai Singh experience of Jaipur as a quincunx plan with
consciously departed seem, disappointingly nine segments may be rooted in more broadly
enough, to be virtually without merit. A work- established traditions of representation that
ing drawing dating from 1725, two years before actually stylized it in this way.
the foundation ceremony at Jaipur, which ap- Modern understandings of Jai Singh's
pears to be a progress report of the city under intentions in planning Jaipur have been ex-
construction shows that Jaipur initially con- trapolated wholly through the evidence of the
sisted of four rectangular blocks symmetrically material record. Neither the Maharaja nor his
organized with the palace block in the extreme architect ever mentioned the sastras or left us
northeast.21* In Hindu cosmology, the northeast one word of commentary concerning Jaipur,
direction is often assimilated to the symbolism and there is no inscriptional program associ-
of the center in the sense that it is regarded as the ated with the city or its major structures. The
upward-rising direction, the one that leads out historical record is thus unclear as to how Jai
of the terrestrial realm. Thus, for the deter- Singh intended to instrumentalize the internal
mined, an identity can be contrived between the organization of his city to recall the geometry
plan that was initially drawn showing the palace of a cosmic pattern. In the end, the allegory of
block in the upward-rising northeast and the one the world model was dramatized principally
that emerged by the time the city was first by the east-west axis rather by the line of the
mapped at the end of the eighteenth century perimeter, the gates, or the organization of the
showing it at the axial center. Regrettably, there blocks, and no attempt was made to overrep-
is no historical documentation on how or when resent the solar trace in the form of a com-
the four blocks developed into the final plan. pleted mandala in plane. Furthermore, as
The fiction that Jaipur was built up on a noted below, one of the most important spa-
system of squaring resembling, for example, the tial relationships set down at Jaipur is in fact
garden plan of the tomb of the Mughul emperor partially external to its plan.

22
 in India. In its iconographic representation as a
Jaipur as a ceremonial stage for spoked wheel, the cakra is explicitly associated
the 'solar' king with the solar cycle, the solar chariot, and solar
kingship (fig. 12). cakra refers to the wheel of
The world pattern suggested by the plan of a monarch's chariot; vartin means turning or
the city, especially by its principal axis, pro- abiding in or ruling over a territory also called a
vided a stage on which Jai Singh could publicly cakra." Thus the monarch as the turner of the
produce himself as the worldly counterpart of wheel is the universal sovereign whose domin-
the cosmic ruler and more explicitly as a solar ion extends as far as the wheel of the chariot
king. The east-west axis originating from the reaches.34
Sun Gate on the east is aligned with apilgrimage The official registers of Jai Singh's daily
site with numerous shrines sacred to Hindus and activities at Jaipur capture him as borne through
9 Cr.iilk- . pi.II nit H iir \ . u 1) Hi
10 Reproduce in of the chart fromO l i e
Jains alike four miles from the city at the Galta the city in his chariot on Hindu holy days,35 and
11 Sun temple of Gaka mountain pass. In the cleavage in the eastern thus call forth the figure of the cakravartin. It
12 Wheel of li- the Sur Temole. ^ hills high above Jaipur at Galta lies a temple to seems beyond question that this identity was
S urya the sun god, also reputedly constructed by carefully cultivated. The Maharaja referred to
Jai Singh {fig. 11). The pass at Galta can be his chariot as the Indra Vimana, the vehicle of
viewed from the summit of the 90-foot-high sun Indra, and thereby explicitly compared himself
dial (the Samrat Yantra), the most imposing of with the tutelary god of the Indo-Aryans, the
the astronomical instruments constructed by Jai world conqueror to whose heaven virtuous kings
Singh at Jaipur, and is roughly on axis with it. It are said to go after death. The most grandiose
is above the pass at Galta that the morning sun gesture Jai Singh made as a would-be cakravartin
first makes its appearance over the city of Jaipur. was the revival of ancient sacrificial rites de-
Each year, the solar axis from Galta across the scribed in the Vedas. The most dramatic of
city was activated in one of the most dramatic these rites was the horse sacrifice which he
rituals of the Jaipur State. As a writer who performed near the end of his life, probably in
witnessed it in British times put it; 1741, although other dates are sometimes given.
"It is from here that the Image of the Sun This rite, in which a consecrated horse was set
is carried in royal state through the City in a free and allowed to roam unimpeded over the
chariot drawn by white horses once a year, at king' s dominion for a year, was associated wi th
the time of the vernal equinox. His Highness hegemony over a vast territory and thus with
the Maharaja with his Sirdars and officials, unchallenged authority. At the end of the year,
and with every accompaniment of'Eastern pomp the horse was killed and dismembered accord-
and splendor, himself joins the procession, and ing to an elaborate protocol which required the
the whole ceremony is one of the most brilliant wives or consorts of the regent to lie down
of the many fine scenes to be witnessed in beside the carcass. The unimpeded odyssey of
Jaipur."32 the horse spatially deployed the temporal course
According to the poet Krishnadalta, the of the year, and the sacrifice of the animal
Kachhawa Rajputs were descendant through ritually reenaeted the annual regeneration of the
the solar line from cakravartins (universal rul- everlasting sun. In ancient times, the sacrifice
ers). This is a matter of some importance in of the horse was believed to confer the vitality
understanding the architectural, ritual, and po- of Tndra on the king and otherwi se to be 36 a rite of
litical strategies Jai Singh employed to orches- world renewal of incomparable power. The
trate his solar kingship. The cakravartin (liter- power of this sacrifice is understood through
ally, turner of the wheel) was an ancient ideal, the birth story of the ideal king Rama who is
the divine ruler who maintained temporal and said to have been brought forth to the childless
moral order in the cosmos providing the model king Dasaratha only after it was performed.
for the role of the worldly sovereign, cakra Although the horse sacrifice is associated in
(wheel) is a trope for order that has been inter- legend with many of the great rulers of ancient
preted politically, ritually, and iconographically India and even with the gods themselves-in

The Cornell Journal of Architecture/ MA<

 later periods, particularly as the Brahmin priest- referred to a political alliance between the king was thus a familiar narrative in the Indian land-
hood came to look on blood sacrifice of any and a number (usually twelve) of subordinate scape, realized in building traditions often seen
kind as increasingly abhorrent-it was rarely neighboring chieftains that was regarded as a as historically independent. Jai Singh's attempt
performed. Thus, Jai Singh's precipitous re- circle or a mandala.411 The king was thus com- to conjoin it with the architectural order of
vival of a rite that was revered in the abstract as pared to the sun and the twelve allies perhaps to Islamic astronomy was by contrast completely
an act of great piety but regarded in practice as the solar months or divisions of the zodiac unprecedented.
anachronistic and disgusting is all the more through which it must pass. Amber State was Through the vehicle of Islamic astronomy,
significant. According to historical accounts, said to have been established on such a model by Jai Singh reformulated his privileged link with
not everything went smoothly. A late nine- Jai Singh's ancestor Pritviraj in the early sixteen the cosmic order and styled himself himself as
teenth-century source in Hindi, the Itihas century. Twelve kotris (fiefdoms) were set up an eminent and divinely inspired scientist.
Rajasthan by Ramnath Ratru Charan, reported in his time with land grants to three branches of Making this identity visible were the astronomi-
tiiat after Jai Singh consecrated the horse, the collateral kinsmen and nine of his sons, who cal instruments of startling proportions he had
animal was released near the city according to became the twelve aristocratic houses of Jaipur.41 built at strategic locations, major centers of
plan. However, some relatives of Jai Singh In the name of Jaipur (= the city of victory), political or ritual authority. As already noted,
who belonged to the Kumbhani branch of the the celestial and political orders were aligned the largest of the complexes were located in the
Kachh waha Rajputs evidently waylaid the horse with the identity of the Maharaja through a palace precincts at Jaipur and at Delhi, the seat
and thereby challenged the Maharaja's author- common trope. The divine king, of whom Indra of the reigning Mughal emperor Muhammed
ity. Many Kumbhanis were reportedly killed in was the archetype, was the just warrior who with Shah, whom Jai Singh compared in the intro-
a battle with royal forces that subsequently conquests over forces of disorder, especially duction to his well-known astronomical tables,
took place." those associated with drought and darkness, the Zij Muhammed Shahi, to the sun of the
Perhaps because it was traditionally an awe- insured the continuity of the cosmic cycles. The firmament.42 The others were built in three of the
inspiring event of great sanctity and perhaps cosmological ordering that was seen as a battle seven holy cities of the Hindus—locations to
because it turned into something of a melee as won was hence closely associated with the re- which the Kachhawa Rajputs had been fortu-
well, the event was long remembered as one of newal of the seasons and the return of the sun. itously dispatched in administrative capacities
the most remarkable of Jai Singh's reign. An Analogous to the eternal order secured by the or on military campaigns: Matura. the birth-
axis mundi, called the "horse sacrifice pillar," gods, was the continuity of the state secured by place of Krishna: Ujjain, sacred to Siva and the
stands in the city as an enduring reminder, but the worldly sovereign, jai, the epithet attached point from which Indian longitude was initially
there are unfortunately no reports of the pro- to both the Maharaja and his city, means con- calculated; and Benares, also sacred to Siva, the
ceedings. According to Roy, the white marble quest or victory and by extension, 'everlasting.1 site where ten legendary horse sacrifices were
statue of a horse in the temple of Kalki in the It is often used as an exhortation meaning 'live performed, and the holiest city of them all. Jai
Sireh Deori Bazar in Jaipur (the only temple of long.' Singh (tion), the title assumed by the Singh had grandiose plans to built additional
its type in northern India) was installed some- Rajput rulers, carried additional traditional as- observatories in other large cities so that "every
time after the rites were performed (fig. 13).38 sociations with conquest, with unchallenged person" devoted to astronomy could make inde-
This image is now interpreted as a commemora- authority, and with the solar principle. pendent observations. If it had been carried out
tion of the event, but it also aligned Jai Singh, as this scheme would have peppered North India
an apparent devotee of Kalki, with yet another Kingship and the celestial order of with the demonstrable evidence of his intellec-
vision of world renewal. According to Hindu Islamic astronomy tual hegemony. As it was, Jai Singh seems to
tradition, Kalki (=Kalkin), the tenth incarnation have been well occupied for nearly twenty years
of Visnu and the only one yet to come, will one The divine city model of celestial order was with his architectural program. The accepted
day materialize mounted on a white horse as a Near Eastern in origin. It was diffused into India chronology places the completion of the obser-
cakravartin whose mission will be to restore in ancient times and emerged as an allegorical vatories in the following order: Delhi (1724),
moral order in the world.39 plan for house, palace, temple, and town in the Jaipur (c. 1734). Ujjain (c. 1734), and Benares
Hindu and Buddhist traditions, in the medieval (c. 1737).4' The observatory at Matura, which
The solar allegory and the political period the Mughals reproduced it in the rigid was located in the old fort there, was completed
order of Amber State geometry of the paradisal garden, best known as later, perhaps a few years before the death of Jai
the setting for their imperial tombs (the Taj Singh in 1743.
The allegorical relationship between king- Mahal in Agra and the tomb of Humayan in In the introduction to the Zij Muhammed
ship and the solar cakra was also reproduced in Delhi are the quintessential examples). The Shahi, Jai Singh called his mathematical and
a political format by the Kacchawa Rajputs. In projection of sovereign power through a celes- astronomical knowledge "thorough" and "per-
the traditional model of Indian kingship, cakra tial order as formulated in a cosmic geometry fect." In these ways h resembled the omni-

24
 science of those gods from whom he claimed cally troubled kingdom. Eventually, he con-
descent. In fact, in the same work he ascribed his solidated his power in the region, and became an The Delhi observatory and the Zij
singular insight in astronomical and mathemati- influential figure at the imperial court at Delhi, Muhammed Shahi
cal matters to the aid of the "Supreme Artificer" •" but it was clear, that whatever posture he struck
which, according to his own testimony, distin- at home, he was no cakravartin. Tt was the The ostensiblepurpose of building the Delhi
guished him from the greatest astronomers of all Mughals, however fleetingly, who ruled India observatory (c. 1724) was the compilation of a
time. He criticized the work of Islamic astrono- from sea to sea. set of astronomical tables (zij) subsequently
mers, from whom most of his insights were The Mughal emperors, who themselves named the Zij Muhammed Shahi in honor of the
actually derived, as intellectually arid and boldly used monumental architecture programs, in- reigning emperor. Virtually everything now
attacked the Greeks, saying that along with all cluding their lavish imperial tombs, to proclaim known about the construction of the observato-
other astronomers they suffered "from [an| in- their political authority in India, were apt to ries is based on Jai Singh's own testimony given
ability to comprehend the all-encompassing be- recognize extravagant projects undertaken by in the introduction added to the Delhi zij in later
13 The statue of the hone in the temple nf Kalki
neficence" of God. Hipparcus. the most famous their subordinates in the provinces as portents of years, probably in 1740-4146 There Jai Singh
astronomer of antiquity, he characterized as an political trouble. The building program in marble justified his building program on the grounds
ignorant clown; Ptolemy he wrote off as "a bat and sandstone undertaken by Jai Singh's fore- that the astronomical tables in common use,
who can never arrive at the sun of truth." Jai bears at their previous seat at Amber evidently whether they were Hindu, Greek or Islamic, were
Singh compared the celestial order to a well- aroused the envy of the emperor Jahangir, who incompatible and inaccurate. The inaccuracies
ordered divine kingdom, and by implication, to saw it as a challenge to his authority.45 By the were ascribed to the metal instruments then used,
his own. The lofty orbs of heaven were seen as early 1720s, the Maharaja had devised a novel especially to their small size, and to deviations
pages in the celestial state record, the stars and strategy for making himself known beyond his produced by wear and tear on their parts. He set
"that heavenly courser the sun"' as part of "the own borders and identifying himself with the out to replace them with larger instruments "of
treasury of the empire of the Most High." Mughal political and territorial order without stone and lime of perfect stability."
Jai Singh's inclination to represent his sov- directly contesting it. He set out to erect monu- Although large masonry instruments were
ereign authority as the expression of a privi- ments to his own kingship throughout the realm not unknown in the world, they were confined to
leged intellect comparable to that of a great sage under the cloak of science. In order to secure the a few sites in the Near East and Central Asia.
dated back to events in his childhood. When he permission of the imperial authorities for the Very little of these remain. The observatory
was presented at the imperial court in Delhi for first undertaking at Delhi, he appealed to the built at Samarkand by Ulugh Beg, a grandson of
the first time in 1696 at the age of seven, the Emperor in the interest of the empire. As he Timur, in 1428 or 1429 is widely believed to
emperor Aurangzeb reportedly was impressed wrote in the Zij: have contained instruments that served as mod-
by his precocity and called him sawai, meaning "Seeing that very important affairs, both els for some of Jai Singh's designs. The remains
one and a quarter. This was taken by Jai Singh regarding religion and the administration of the of a single instrument there, a giant masonry
to mean that the highest authority in all India Empire, depend upon these; and that in time of sextant originally enclosed within a circular
regarded him as an intellectual giant. Subse- rising and setting of the planets, and the seasons three or four-storied structure, were discovered
quently he became reoccupied with public of eclipses of the sun and moon, many consider- by the Russian archaeologist V.L.Vyatkin in
acknowledgment of his superior intellect and able disagreements of a similar nature were 1908.47 They recall the winged quadrants of the
prowess in the sciences. For the first thirteen found—he represented the matter to his Majesty Samrat Yantra, but otherwise there were numer-
years of his reign at Amber, Jai Singh repeatedly of dignity and power, the sun of thefirmamentof ous dissimilarities, including the aforementioned
petitioned the imperial court at Delhi to confer felicity and dominion, the splendour of the fore- circular tower. In addition, fifteenth-century
Sawai as an official title. The request was head of imperial magnificence, the unrivaled sources mention that the walls of the Samarkand
finally granted by the emperor Farrukh-siyar in pearl of the sea of sovereignty, the incompa- observatory were adorned with murals display-
1713, six years after the death of Aurangzeb. rable brightest star of the heaven of empire, ing mythical representations of the celestial
Thereafter the Maharaja referred to himself as whose standard is the sun, whose retinue the bodies,48 and nothing of this sort was attempted
Sawai Jai Singh. Later he transferred the epithet moon, whose lance is Mars and whose pen is in India. In any event, since the Maharaja
to his new town, which he called Sawai Jaipur. Mercury, with attendants like Venus whose insisted that the design of the instruments was
During the early years of Jai Singh's reign, threshold is the sky, whose signet is Jupiter, his own, very little can be recovered about the
northern India was politically fractured by wars whose sentinel is Saturn—the Emperor de- specific precedents for the instruments, who
of succession that followed the death of scendedfrom a long race of kings, an Alexander adapted them and oversaw their construction in
Aurangzeb, and Jai Singh was deeply absorbed in dignity, the shadow of God, the victorious India, or, if they were actually based on proto-
by political and military maneuvers so as to king Muhammed Shah. May he ever be trium- types in the Central Asia, how detailed knowl-
retain control over his contracted and economi- phant in battle,'1'' edge of them was obtained at a distance.49

The Cornell Journal of Architecture/ UACDOUGALL 25

 The tact that the forms were unprecedented tually evocative or, as suggested below, may
in India at the time quite naturally suggests that have reminded the Indians of ritual grounds4
Jai Singh's astronomical program was equally
innovative, but this was far from the case. Jai The instruments
Singh was concerned almost wholly with the
rectification of existing astronomical tables, There were ten different types of masonry
especially those of Ulugh Beg from which, instruments found at the various observatories
despite public claims to the contrary, his dif- when descriptions of them began to be made
fered very little. Jai Singh's astronomy was around the turn of the nineteenth century. In
based on a geocentric view of the universe, addition, there were smaller metal instruments
derived almost exclusively from the work of such as the astrolabe and the sextant, most of
Ptolemy and Islamic works directly indebted to which are preserved only at Jaipur. One of the
it, which was already in disrepute in Europe. Tt most dramatic masonry forms, the Misra Yantra 14 Mixed Instrument, Delhi
is sobering to consider, as Kaye (1918) has (Mixed Instrument) is found only at Delhi and 15 Samral Yantra: View showing belvedere
16 Samral Yantra. Jaipur; View from nnrth
pointed out, that Jai Singh died exactly two was probably added later by Jai Singh's son 17 Observatory. Jaipur: Plan
hundred years after Copernicus. It is nonethe- Madhu Singh (fig. 14)." Since there were no
less beyond question that Jai Singh had an avid independent descriptions of the sites made prior
interest in the astronomy of the times and stimu- to 1785, important questions remain as to which
lated an interest in it through the observatories. of the masonry instruments were actually con-
He also collected and translated manuscripts on structed by Jai Singh and which were added
astronomy and astrology, some of which are after his time. The Jaipur observatory in par-
preserved today in the archives at Jaipur, hosted ticular has clearly been substantially enlarged.
foreign astronomers at his court,50 and sent At least three of the instruments, the Samrat
assistants to Europe to gather information-un- Yantra ('supreme' instrument, a sundial) which
fortunately, it turned out. from the wrong is found at all of the observatories, the Jai
sources. It remains unclear whether Jai Singh Prakash Yantra (the 'light of Jai' instrument, an
was entirely uninformed about the scientific armillary sphere) and the Ram Yantra (Rama's
revolution in Europe or simply more preoccu- instrument, also a sun instrument) both of
pied with astronomy as a declamatory tool. which are found only at Delhi and Jaipur are
The anachronistic nature of Jai Singh's most certainly designs developed by Jai Singh
astronomy was belied in the Indian setting by and very likely the only major masonry struc-
the instruments he constructed. We can only tures actually erected by him at Delhi. In the
guess what went through the mind of the aver- introduction of the Ztj Muhammed Shahi these
age Indian who was confronted with gigantic are the three instruments singled out by Jai
forms in bold and novel shapes; contemporary Singh as being "of his own invention" and in
commentators still find them startling and have fact, the only ones mentioned at all. The three
described them variously as ultramodern, sur- belonged to a single paradigm in another impor-
real, and weird.51 The colloquial term Jantar tant sense. They are the only masonry instru-
Mantar that came to be applied all the observa- ments identified by epithets, vis., 'supreme',
tories52 is not at all the technical term for obser- 'Jai's light' and 'Ram.' The nomenclature of
vatory; rather, it is a phrase whose stylistic the rest of the masonry instruments, most of
flavor is captured by the English "hocus-pocus." which are in place only at Jaipur, is transpar-
It is taken to be a corruption of yantra (a term ently derived from their form ('bowl' instru-
broadly meaning 'instrument', and also applied ment, for example) or function ('zodiac circle"
to mystical diagrams and in astronomy to sex- instrument). A discussion of the nomenclature
tants) and mantra (incantation).53 In ritual, as it sheds light on Jai Singh's intentions follows
yantra is a spatial representation of the divine or the description of the main instruments that
the occult; a mantra is its auditory form. It appears below. A succinct summary of their
would therefore seem that the observatories functions from the perspective of the non-spe-
may have been received as mystically or spiri- cialist in astronomy is also provided. It is based
on Kaye 1918 and Singh 1978 and 1986 as Yantras at Jaipur one of them over four times
noted. the size of the other. The larger one, 90 feet
high from its base below the earth to its apex,
The Samrat Yantra is in the southeast corner of the observatory
precincts (fig. 17). It was described as early as
The Samrat Yantra (supreme instrument), 1785 by Tieffenthaler, a Jesuit missionary who
is a large equinoctial dial or sundial from which traveled in India from 1743 to 1786.57 The
solar time was read. The central portion of the smaller, at a little over 18 feet in height, is
instrument is a triangular gnomon, whose hy- roughly the size of two such instruments con-
potenuse is parallel to the axis of the earth. structed at Ujjain andBenares. It lies off center
Stairs lead to the apex of the gnomon along the in the northwest, as shown in the plan. The
hypotenuse. At Jaipur, the summit of the instru- smaller instrument is not independently de-
ment is crowned by a chatri (literally, parasol) scribed by Tieffenthaler or Kaye, and the rea-
or belvedere whose four sides are oriented to the sons why it was necessary to have two major
major directions and ribs to the minor ones (fig. instruments of this type in a single observatory
15). In the iconographic conventions of Hindu are unknown. It may be that the smaller
architecture, the chatri expressed the major instrument was the original one and that the
axes of the entire universe. It was one of the five second was built later, possibly to dwarf the
traditional emblems of Indian kingship56 and an one at Delhi. In any event, it is hard to imagine
important element in the vocabulary of Rajput circumstances under which the relative chro-
architecture. The cenotaphs of the Amber nology would have been reversed. The verti-
Rajputs were constructed as chatris. The chatri cal plane of the central masonry structure of
also appeared as a crowning element in Rajput the Samrat Yantra is pierced by unadorned
palaces and forts. archways which vary in number depending on
The base of the Samrat Yantra lies in the the size of the instrument. Inasmuch as the
plane of the local meridian and hence is oriented style of the arches is replicated elsewhere in
due north. Projecting from either side of the Rajput architecture as well as in the imperial
gnomon along the east-west axis are two giant buildings of the Mughals, it is not in itself
quadrants of acircle rising like wings toward the remarkable. However, the placement of the
heavens that are parallel to the plane of the arches recalls the composition of Hindu temples
equator(fig. 16). The edge of each quadrant was in north India whose central spires were made
originally graduated in hours, minutes, and de- in the image of cosmic mountains flanked by
grees. When the sun rises in the east, the shadow subsidiary 'peaks.' At Jaipur, arches of iden-
rails on the top of the western quadrant, gradu- tical design arc repeated in the walls that en-
ally descending across its curvature to the mid- close the observatory, recalling the encircling
point of the structure when noon approaches and mountainous walls that according to Hindu
there is no shadow. In the afternoon, the shadow mythology surround the land and the seas in
correspondingly rises across the eastern quad- concentric rings. The Ram Yantra instrument
rant until it reaches its most distant point at at Delhi (discussed below), is enclosed by a
sunset. The edges of the gnomon were also superstructure containing arches of identical
originally marked with scales of tangents so as design.
to calculate the sun's declination or angular The masonry structure that supports both
distance from the equator. quadrants at Jaipur and the east quadrant at
This particular instrument is found at all Delhi contains chambers for a sextant instru-
the observatories, but it varies in size. The ment (fig. 18). The sextant consists of two
dimensions here follow Kaye (1918), whose graduated 60° arcs whose surfaces face upward
measurements have been used by subsequent to the ceiling. At Delhi, the chambers were
writers. The Delhi structure is 68 feet high, closed up early in the century because of flood-
approximately 8 feet of which lies below the ing, but at Jaipur the west chamber is still
ground plane. There are actually two Samrat accessible. Two holes projecting sunlight

The Cornell Journal of Architecture/ MM 27

through the roof onto the instrument at midday vatory at Jaipur, that is the Ram Yantra and the
permit the calculation of the zenith distance on Jai Prakash Yantra, are likewise paired with
the basis of the observation of the declination of formally and functionally similar instruments
the sun. that are smaller in size, as noted below. The
redundancies suggest experiments at reduced
Adaptations of the Samrat Yantra scales that were later produced at larger ones.

At Jaipur, the form of the Samrat Yantra The Jai Prakash Yantra
has been adopted for a set of twelve smaller
instruments that lie grouped immediately to the The Jai Prakash Yantra (light of Jai instru-
southwest of it along the southern wall of the ment), seemingly named by the Maharaja after
observatory (fig.19). Aside from the Samrat himself, consists of two mounted, concave
Yantra, these instruments are the only ones in hemispheres erected side by side that mirror 18 Observalory.Delhi; Plan
masonry specifically described by Tieffenthalter the celestial sphere (fig. 20). The diameter of 19 Observatory. Jaipur; Vie* of '/odia
in 1785.58 Since they are mentioned neither by the hemispheres is 27 feet 5 inches at Delhi and 20 Jai Prakash Yantra, Jaipur

Jai Singh in the introduction to the Zij 17 feet 10 inches at Jaipur. The markings on
Muhammed Shahi nor in a prior list of known the surfaces of the instrument are now main-
instruments proper to an observatory composed tai ned only at Jaipur. The perimeter represents
by acourt astronomer (c. 1729),59they cannot be the horizon and was originally graduated in
established as Jai Singh's design. This Rasi degrees. Azimuth lines, altitude circles, the
Valaya (Zodiac circle) represents each of the tropics, and other coordinates were mapped
twelve signs of the Zodiac with a separate out in the cavity. Cross wires were stretched
Samrat Yantra-likc structure. The instruments from east to west and north to south; the shadow
are believed to have read the latitude and of the intersection of the wires failing in the
longitude of the sun or other celestial bodies cavity indicated the position of the sun in the
when the particular zodiac sign was on the heavens. The instrument could also be used to
horizon, although it must be mentioned that the read the positions of other heavenly bodies by
original angles of the instruments did not fully making visual alignments. In principle, only
accord with this interpretation and were altered one hemisphere was technically necessary but
by a restoration team in 1902 to produce it.f>" since observations were made from below,
Whereas the quadrants of the Samrat Yantra lie sections were cut out to accommodate observ-
in the plane of the equator, the quadrants of the ers. For this reason, the concave hemisphere
zodiac instruments lie in the plane of the ecliptic was 'duplicated' with the solids and voids
and the edge of the gnomon points to the north reversed so as to provide a complete surface
pole of the ecliptic when the particular sign is on dispersed over two forms. The bowls of the
the horizon. Delhi Jai Prakash, which are aligned along an
Immediately to the east of the small Samrat east-west axis, are masonry and have under-
Yantra is a simple triangular gnomon lacking gone extensive renovation over the years; in
the quadrants found in the other forms and fact, one of the hemispheres was probably
smaller in its overall dimensions. In fact, it is completely reconstructed during the nineteenth
located so close to the small Samrat Yantra that century. The bowls of the instrument at Jaipur,
there is no space for a west flanking quadrant. which are aligned north-south, were restored DELHI
Kaye does not mention it at all, although it is in white marble in 1901." OBSERVATORY
partially visible in a photograph he made of the At Jaipur, a second instrument in white
observatory.fil Since it is oriented to the north marble of unknown datecalled the Kapali Yantra
like the two larger instruments, it has recently (Bowl Instrument) is similar in form and func-
been interpreted as an instrument that locates tion to the Jai Prakash. Its hemispherical sur-
the Pole Star.62 Indeed, as it lacks quadrants, no faces, however, are not incised with the obser-
other observational function can be ascribed to vational trenches of the latter. Like the Delhi
it. The two other major structures in the obser- instrument, its bowls are aligned east-west.
 The Ram Yantra
The Ram Yantra. an instrument found at
both Delhi and Jaipur, is the third of the three
instruments mentioned by Jai Singh in the intro-
duction to the Zij Muhammed Shahi. However,
it is not mentioned by name in his court
astronomer's 1729 list of proper observatory
instruments. This suggests that either the design
was developed or this particular name attached
to it sometime during the 1730s before the
introduction to the Zij was written. The Ram
Yantra consists of two large circular structures,
recalling the form of the Samarkand tower, each
of which has a pillar or gnomon at the center.
The gigantic structures at Delhi are original to
the observatory; they were restored by the Ma-
haraja of Jaipur in 1912 (figs. 21, 22, and 23).f>4
They differ somewhat in their proportions from
the smaller examples at Jaipur which are mod-
ern (c. 1891) structures.65 There are also two
miniaturized examples at Jaipur of unknown
date that may have been constructed as models.
At Delhi, each Ram Yantra structure is 54
feet 7-1/2 inches in diameter and 24 feet 8 inches
high. The interior horizontal surface is graduated
by 30 giant marble spokes of 6 degrees each
interspersed with voids of the same dimension so
as to form a giant wheel in plane. The spokes are
raised on supports 3 feet high so that a viewer can
make observations from the trenches between
them. At the line of the wall the horizontal
members of the floor meet 30 vertical ones that
project the wheel into cylindrical form. Interior
recesses between these vertical members extend
the voids from the wheel upwards. Each of the
recesses contains four tiered Rajput-style arches
of equal dimensions. The four tiers encircling the
structures each contain 30 arches. The lowermost
tier is completely below the ground so that the
recessed arches do not carry through to the exte-
rior. The second tier clears [he ground plane
roughly at midpoint. The uppermost tiers of
arches fully pierce the exterior walls. Sixteen
sighting bars originally spanned each of the 30
recesses, and the graduated notches into which
they were inserted remain visible on the faces of
the vertical members. A massive gnomon (24 feet
6-1/2 inches high; 5 feet 3-1II inches in diameter)

The Cornell Journal of Architecture/ MACDOUGALL

 stands at thecenterof the wheel. Graduated vertical
lines of 6 degrees each running the entire length of The ritual order and the nomencla-
the gnomon align it with solids and voids of the ture of the major instruments
horizontal and vertical planes of the structure. The
height of the gnomon as well as the distance from Till now little attention has been focused on
the top of the wall to the floor is equal to the distance the nomenclature of the instruments, which was
from the circumference of the building to the center not explained by Jai Singh. The names have
of the gnomon. As with the Jai Prakash, the two sometimes been interpreted as allusions to his-
structures of the Ram Yantra are complementary torical personages, even though there is scant
forms, wiLh the voids in one corresponding to the evidence of commemorative naming of archi-
structural elements in the other. tectural works in Jai Singh's time or thereafter.
At Jaipur, the Ram Yantra exhibits certain Place names in the city of Jaipur are almost
formal differences from the one at Delhi. The entirely locational and descriptive or overtly
gnomon there is a slender iron spike. Further, celestial in reference (Sun Gate, Cloud Palace,
the Jaipur instrument is divided into twelve Moon Palace, for example).
sectors, rather than into thirty. In one structure It is sometimes assumed that in naming the
the solids are 18 degrees and the voids are 12 armillary sphere instrument the 'Light of Jai1
degrees; in the complementary structure the the Maharaja somewhat immodestly alluded to
angles of the solids and the voids are reversed. himself. Singh asserts that Jai Singh named the
The dimensions of the structures (23 feet 1 inch Samrat Yantra (supreme instrument) after one
in diameter and 11 feet 4 inches high) are less of his chief assistants, a court astronomer and
than half those of the instruments at Delhi. priest named Pandit Jagannath, whom the Ma-
The upper rim of the Ram Yantra structure haraja once accorded the title of SamraLWl
represents the horizon and the center where the Jagannath1 s descendants in Jaipur evidently
gnomon stands, the zenith. Like the Samrat continue to use the title. The Ram Yantra is said
Yantra and the Jai Prakash, the instrument is thus to have been named after the Maharaja Ram
a model of the celestial sphere inverted. Imme- Singh, Jai Singh's great-grandfather, a man of
diately after sunrise and just before sunset, the no particular accomplishment who ruled Amber
shadow of the gnomon is longest and falls on the indifferently from 1667-1688." He spent al-
upper rim. Then, as the sun rises in the heavens, most his entire reign on duty in outposts in
the shadow gradually descends over the wall and Assam and Afghanistan because he had antago-
the floor until it reaches the gnomon at midday. nized the Emperor Aurangzeb, who wanted him
In the afternoon the shadow ascends the opposite kept out of Delhi. He was succeeded by his
side, finally disappearing over the rim at sunset. grandson because his only son died in a brawl at
Originally, as it moved it passed over gradua- the Emperor's court in the Deccan.68 Overall,
tions of one degree each marked on the vertical his reign is associated primarily with a sharp
and horizontal surfaces parallel to the rim. This decline in the prestige and influence of the state
permitted the reading of the sun's altitude. These of Amber which Jai Singh spent nearly the first
graduations formed concentric circles from the twenty years of his kingship repairing.6y Given
top of the structure to the center at the gnomon. what we already know about Jai Singh's person-
There were also perpendicular lines of one de- ality, it seems unlikely that he would have
gree which segmented the spokes and the verti- chosen to triangulate himself between such a
cal surfaces. The midpoint of the shadow of the figure and one of his assistants in an important
gnomon on these lines gave the azimuth, the architectural program at the imperial capital.
horizontal angle of the sun from the south point More likely, the instruments' nomenclature
of the horizon. The graduations on the walls of points to a narrative of a different kind in which
the Delhi structures have disappeared, but at the the eternal cycles of the cosmos were identified
Jaipur Ram Yantra, which as previously noted is with ideals of cosmic kingship. In the absence
modern, they have been maintained. The sight- of any evidence to the contrary, the solar instru-
ing bars are also in place at Jaipur. ment the Ram Yantra, would seem to be, as its
 name implies, a trope for Rama, Jai Singh's eration. The race linked the annual renewal of
most illustrious royal ancestor, rather than a sly the generative powers in the universe to the
attempt to introduce the memory of a somewhat renewal of kingly authority.74 The form of the
more controversial one into the architectural race course evoked the cycle of the sun, as did a
fabric at Delhi. Jai Singh was eclectic in his numerological metaphor: When the chariot was
temple patronage, but nonetheless abeltcr known yoked, a verse was recited referring to the 27
devotee of Rama than of any other deity. De- godlings who harnessed the chariot of Indra.
scribed in Valmikr s Ramayana as learned, elo- They corresponded to the 27 constellations in
quent, the best of royal seers. Rama was a wise the Hindu heavens which were transited by the
king who used his intellectual gifts to practical sun in its annual course.75 The triumph of the
ends.™ In this sense, he was a powerful exem- king in the race corresponded to the beginning
plar for Jai Singh's own kingship, and thus a of a new temporal cycle. The boon was the
worthy object of the Maharaja's devotional at- everlasting sun or the renewal of the year.
Ram Yantras, Delhi;
Ram Y an Iras, Delhi;
tention. Rama was also seen as most profound The name Jai Prakash is likewise amenable
Ram Y an Iras. Del hi: evidence of the regenerative power of sacrifice, to interpretati on through the narrative of the solar
since he was born to the royal line of Ayodhya cycle and cosmic renewal. The literal meaning
only after the horse sacrifice was performed by of Jai Prakash is the "light of victory" or "the
his father. His birth, which regenerated the solar light of Jai," calling to mind the certain victory of
lineage of Dasaratha, was compared to the re- the king as sacrificer in the vajapeya chariot race.
birth of the everlasting sun. Rama was also the The light in question would be thai of the sun. As
descendant of Surya, the sun god, to whom Jai in the chariot race, the victory is its regeneration,
Singh erected a temple at Galta. Presently, its everlasting nature. Jai, in the person of Jai
indeed, Rama is linked to Surya in the sacred Singh, identified the sacrificer and the victor.
geography of this pilgrimage destination; two of "Jai Prakash" therefore suggests a reflexive link
the principal temples there are dedicated to him. between the everlasting sun and the solar mon-
According to the narrative the Kacchawa Rajputs arch of the everlasting state. And in fact Jai
set forth about themselves, Jai Singh was Rama's Singh is often depicted in Rajput painting with
lineal descendant and morlal reflection. his head set against the disc of the sun
The epithet samrat is likewise rooted in the
imagery of solar kingship and cosmic rej u vena- The observatories as settings for
tion. According to the court poet KrishnaBhatta, rituai action
who compiled a Sanskrit work on Jai Singh's
reign soon after his death, Jai Singh obtained the As a corruption of the words for diagram
title of samrat ('preeminent among rulers') by (yantra) and incantation (mantra), Jantar Mantar
performing an important Vedic sacrifice, the suggests a popular reading of the observatories
vajapeya.™ His performance of the vajapeya as settings for ritual action. Possibly, such a
has come down to us in written records as one of reading was provoked by the very names of the
the singular events of his reign; it was men- three main instruments at the observatories,
tioned as early as 1729 in the introduction to a with their explicit link to rites. A comparison of
translation of Ptolemy' s Almagest done for him the design of the instruments and that of Vedic
by Pandit Jagannath.72 Drekmeier, writing of sacrificial altar suggests thai the evocative para-
the Vedic king, confirms that samrat, 'pre-emi- digm may be formal as well as linguistic. Both
nent among rulers', was the title conferred on the Jai Prakash Yantra and the Ram Yantra are
the king who performed this important sacri- reminiscent of the elements of the ritual assem-
fice.73 As part of the elaborate rituals of the blage. The Ram Yantra suggests a nearly literal
vajapeya sacrifice, a chariot race tracing a cir- interpretation of the chariot wheel over which
cuit in which the sacrificer (king) was always oblations were poured into the sacrificial fire.
the victor was undertaken. The chariot race was The elevated, mounted depressions of die Jai
a central feature of a number of Vedic rites Prakash Yantra suggest the formal geometry of
connected with the year and with cosmic regen- the altar itself.

The Cornell Journal of Architecture/ UACDOUGALL

 The Vedic altar consisted of three firepits: with the smaller instruments of the Islamic weeks and months, seasons and years were
a circle representing the earth, a square repre- tradition rather than a reduplicative exercise. calculated according to this system, controlled
senting the heavens, and a semicircle represent- Inasmuch as there is a covert text that refers to by and located in the capital city."80 At Jaipur,
ing mid-space. (Fig. 24) The firepits were ritual action as an instrument of cosmic control, as in other capitals of Indianized Asia, the in-
arranged around a central space called a vedi on it is a matter of interest that the observatory at struments of timekeeping were located within
which the materials of the sacrifice were kept. It Jaipur has actually served as a setting for rites the precincts of the celestial city on earth, but
was a ritually inactive space in the sense that no associated with the passage and control of time. with an important difference. Here they were
fires burned there. The arcs running the length interpreted architecturally so as to become fix-
of the vedi can be generated from two unrealized Summary and conclusions tures in the cosmography of the city itself. The
circles; a similar exercise generates the arcs on link they established in the mid-space between
the parallel sides. The overall geometry of the The most innovative components of Jai the terrestrial world and the celestial one was
vedi can be suggested simply by reversing the Singh's building program-his city plan at Jaipur further expressed by their literal functions, as
figure-ground relationship of the Jai Prakash as andhis astronomical instruments-are thus linked well as by their rough alignment with respect to
well as its formally similar instrument the Kapali to cosmie rejuvenation and the orchestration of axial roadways of the city, its named gates, and
Yantra. At Jaipur, the bowls of the Jai Prakash. solar kingship. The plan of the city of Jaipur the shrines at Galta. Their location within the
are positioned so that the north-south axis passes expresses a cosmological ordering of the earthly central palace precincts identified the celestial
through the hemispheres and the east-west axis kingdom through selective allusions to a cosmic order unambiguously and publicly with the au-
bisects the central void. Tn the hemispheres of plan which was quite literally duplicated thority of the Maharaja who measured out the
the Delhi Jai Prakash, as well as in those of the elsewhere in Indianized Asia. The capital cities hours and the minutes through instruments of
formally similar Kapali Yantra at Jaipur, these of the Burmese including Mandalay.77 the temple his own invention. The relationship between
relationships are transposed, with the main axes cities of southern India such as Madurai7S and the heavens and the earth on the one hand and
across the instruments running east-west. Kandy in Sri Lanka79 are examples of other the state and the celestial order on the other were
Previous considerations of formal prece- planning attempts to replicate cosmic order in woven into a gestalt of universal order through
dents for the instruments at the observatories miniature. "Frozen" within a geometrical frame, a nomenclature that stimulated memories of
have focused almost entirely on Islamic hand- the inexorable order imputed to the world of the rites.
held instruments such as astrolabes, suggesting gods could be visually apprehended as aconclu- In Jai Singh's time eclipses were announced
that Jai Singh's principal interpretive contribu- sive link between the cycles of the cosmos and to the citizenry by a drum beaten beneath the
tion was to enlarge them to a ridiculous scale in the authority of the worldly king. The axial chatri or belvedere on the summit of the Samrat
masonry and to fix them as features in a unprec- urban plan was at once an expression of this Yantra at Jaipur.81 The chatri was one of the
edented architectural landscape, inspired per- order and a stage on which sovereign authority emblems of kingship and as an imago murtdi a
haps by reports of similar efforts at Samarkand. could be dramati zed in ceremonies andritualsof concrete representation of universal sover-
The design of the Jai Prakash, for example, has the state, such as the marshaling of the sun from eignty. The architectural vocabulary of the
been presented as a magnification of movable Galta at the time of the vemal equinox. Samrat Yantra, with the royal arches on its
graduated bowlinstruments from the Near East.76 At Jaipur, the most concise form of the vertical surface and especially its crowning
To a degree, Jai Singh's own statements in the cosmic narrative was found in the rectilinear site parasol oriented to the major and minor direc-
preface to the Zij Muhammed Shahi lend sup- plan itself, which projected the passage of solar tions, thus provided the backdrop for rituals of
port to the interpretation that he was concerned time onto the east-west axial organization of the time keeping that placed the worldly sovereign
naively with questions of scale. Nonetheless, city. Very broadly therefore, the sovereign at the center of temporal regulation and cosmic
the contention that Jai Singh simply enlarged or could be understood through the idiom of the control.
amended available designs is beliedby the forms rectilinear geometry of his capital to be the At the present time, on the full moon day
themselves. There is no credible precedent on master of time as well as of space. Other of the month of Ashadha (June-July), that is
any scale for the form of the giant wheels of the measures elaborated the meanings succinctly roughly at the time of the onset of the monsoon
Ram Yantra or for the incised bowls of the Jai represented by the site plan. In his discussion of season, the pandits of Jaipur gather at the
Prakash, for example. The Maharaja claimed the Burmese royal city, Aung-Thwin has argued observatory to conduct rites connected with
that the instruments were of "his own inven- that the Asian regent was the custodian of sacred ensuring the return of the rains (figs. 25 and
tion," and in some measure this seems to have time and the capital city the keeper of it. In the 26). It is not a matter of record whether these
been the case. Inasmuch as their design seems Burmese capitals, a water clock was kept on the rites date from Jai Singh's time, but it seems
to incorporate a Hindu subtext of cosmic control north side of the main east gate, and the hours of likely that they are of some historical depth.
that referred obliquely to rites both formally and day and night sounded at appropriate intervals Elsewhere in Rajasthan, similar though more
linguistically, it suggests an imaginative break by the banging of a drum: '"the days and nights, perfunctory rites invoking the god Indra are
 customarily performed at the same time of the cially temples, rich iconographic details were
year in the rural villages."2 At the observato- additional devices for concretizing a divinely
ries, the pandits first recite prayers for bounti- directed order. The temple was not simply
ful rains around a makeshift altar on which oriented to the major and minor directions; its
offerings are made and lamps are lighted. Then cardinal points were commonly marked by an-
they proceed to the summit of the Samrat thropomorphic representations of the eight re-
Yantra to hoist a flag at sunset that shows the gents that governed them. The wheel of the
direction of the prevailing winds. Winds from chariot representing the solar cycle was a com-
the north, northeast, and east at that moment mon surface motif. Other sculpture rendered
are said to predict good rains and good crops, celestial events or elements (the sun and the
whereas winds from the south and southeast eclipse, for example) in anthropomorphic or
predict drought and famine. According to the theriomorphic form. Stylized miniaturizations
Vedic literature, the god Indra vanquished the of the cosmos, especially the parasol, were
ier rites at [he Jatpur otatrvati evil forces that brought on drought and eclipses important elements in civil architecture as well.
ier riles at [he Jaipur ofaervtui with his thunderbolt. Inasmuch as Jai Singh In this manner, celestial elements, temporal
carefully compared himself to Indra and ener- cycles, and eosmological structure were ap-
gized his sovereign authority with the might of proached and understood visually through a
Indra through the rites of sacrifice, it is note- concrete language. This cosmologieal structure
worthy that both rains and eclipses became was also apprehended ritually in the culture,
closely associated with the functions of the " especially in the sacrifice, through some of the
observatory. It is also of interest that the same metaphoric devices. Thus traditional ar-
marking of the passage of time at the observa- chitecture layered mythically apprehended un-
tory was projected in auditory form: for ex- derstandings of cosmic order onto that which
ample in the beating of drums at eclipses and was observation ally derived.
perhaps on other occasions and in the recita- The program of Jai Singh's observatories
tions by the pandits themselves. The now was unique in the Hindu experience because it
largely lost experience of the observatories as set aside the iconographic subtext in architecture
sound (mantra) as well as space (yantra) seems of scale. At the observatories, monumental
likely to have inspired the term Jantar Mantar architecture remained amethodof apprehending
that came to be applied to them. cosmologieal order, but the program substituted
As we have seen, Hindu architectural de- divinely revealed mathematics and geometry as
sign entrapped celestial alignments in the plan a privileged form of understanding.
form of the building or city. Earthly palaces
and cities were regarded as reproductions of
celestial ones that lay at a distance unseen in
the realm of the gods. The Hindu temple with
its central 'mountain' and surrounding seas
reproduced the mythic geography of the or-
dered universe as a holistic icon. The earth was
thus configured so as to mirror the sky. The The photographs on this work, unless oth-
instruments at the observatories transposed the erwise noted, are drawn from the Robert D.
celestial pattern onto an earthly one with spe- McDougall collection in the Morris Wells Slide
cial clarity, since they were uncomplicated by Library, College of Architecture, Art, and Plan-
other programmatic considerations that were ning. The author gratefully acknowledges the
involved in the design of cities, palaces and help of the Slide Library in the preparation of
dwellings. In all works of architecture, mirror- this work. The author also thanks Anahita
ing was an underlying design principle; at the Poonegar who oversaw additional photography
observatories it was one and the same as the at Jaipur in the summer of 1992 and also as-
function. sisted in the collection of bibliographic materi-
On other Hindu architecture of scale espe- als for this work.

The Cornell Journal of Architecture/ MACOOUGAI 33