The largest Sun dial in the world which shows the local time with a precision of two seconds.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron will visit the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur today. Mr Macron is the Chief Guest for the 75th Republic Day and will join the celebrations tomorrow in New Delhi.
Jantar Mantar, which translates to “instruments for measuring the harmony of the heavens” is a famous solar observatory established by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2010.
The World Heritage Site is an exhibit of India’s expertise and scientific progress centuries before independence. It includes a set of eighteen instruments and is the biggest stone observatory in the world.
The Jantar Mantar is one of the five such monuments built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II of Jaipur from 1723 onward. The Jantar Mantar in Delhi was built in 1724 and other monuments are in Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura.
All You Need To Know About Jantar Mantar, Jaipur
The Laghu Samrat Yantra is a Sun Dial that can help to calibrate local time to an accuracy of 20 seconds.
The triangular wall which is placed in a north-south direction has quadrants on either side. The shadow of the wall moves at equal distances in equal time intervals on the quadrants. This movement is calibrated to read the local time.
The western and eastern quadrants are divided into sub-divisions, each of 6 hours, for the morning and afternoon segments respectively.
Each hour is divided into four fifteen-minute divisions which are subdivided into five minutes and one-minute divisions. Each one-minute division is then subdivided into three divisions 20 seconds each.
The Sun Dial is used to determine the position of the Sun in the hemispheres. It is made in two parts- one depicting when the Sun is in the northern hemisphere ( March to September) and the other depicting the Sun in the southern hemisphere (September to March).
The shadow of the iron rod (gnomon) depicts the local time of Jaipur.
Rashivalaya which are instruments for measuring the celestial latitude and longitude of the celestial bodies. There are twelve instruments which represent the twelve signs of the zodiac. Measurement is done when the corresponding sign of the zodiac transits the local meridian.
These instruments are placed based on the angular position of the Sun in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
The largest Sun dial in the world which shows the local time with a precision of two seconds.
Emmanuel Macron’s India Visit
Emmanuel Macron, who is the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in Delhi, is visiting Jaipur’s iconic sites, including the hilltop Amber Palace, and was scheduled to participate in a roadshow with Prime Minister Modi Modi later in the day.
At Amber Fort, a red carpet was laid out and caparisoned elephants lined up for the French president External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari were at the fort. Mr Macron interacted there with a group of children holding banners proclaiming India-France friendship.
President Macron will arrive at Kartavya Path with President Murmu in the traditional buggy which is making a comeback after a gap of 40 years.