Jantar Mantar: Architecture at the Service of Science
Massive curvilinear structures stoop down a slope until they touch the ground, and amorphous voids characterize large twisting walls that can be accessed by dozens of steps. The red color indicates the structures and distinguishes them from everything else in central New Delhi. This might be a description of a playground or even a skate park, but it’s one of five astronomical observatories built in India between 1724 and 1738.
These labyrinth volumes, much like an incarnation of Escher’s drawings, were designed by Indian Prince Jai Singh as part of an ambitious project that sought to put Architecture in the service of science. Their shapes make complex astronomical analysis possible, such as predicting eclipses, tracking the position of stars, and determining the exact orbit of the Earth around the Sun.
The earliest observatories, built by the Greeks and Persians, contained elements that were incorporated into this project, but none were as complex and large in scale as Jai Singh. Its five observatories were built in different cities of India, at great distances from each other, which indicates a highly valuable search for accuracy by its creator, since in this way it will be possible to compare the readings of different coordinates. However, some say this effort also hardened Jai Singh’s political standing, adding to his notoriety. The five structures became known as “Jantar Mantaris” (“Jantar” is derived from “yantra”, a Sanskrit instrument, and “mintar” is derived from “mantrana”, meaning consultation or calculation).
Regardless of its true intent, the grandeur of the work has astounded visitors and fans for centuries, highlighting the astronomical precision made possible by the architecture itself, built at a time when telescopes were already in use in Europe. And this is, in fact, one of the biggest controversies that go through the history of observatories, which is why the Indian Prince to build such a great work and at the same time outdated in terms of technology is a recurring question. .
One answer asserts that communication between West and East in the eighteenth century was very limited, some even assert that the Prince would not have been aware of such technology due to the decision of his interlocutors who disagreed with heliocentric theories and hid the existence of telescopes. However, the situation can be justified by a slight difference in perspective because the observatories were conceived under the influence of Islamic astronomy which – unlike the West – understood science in an integrated aspect with the sacred field.
This latter version was taken into account when Jantar Mantar in Jaipur was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, stating that its inclusion was due to the fact that the observatory is “witness to ancient cosmological, astronomical and scientific traditions, shared by a wide range of Western, Middle Eastern, Asian and African religions over the over a period of more than fifteen centuries.
In this sense, walking through these structures means understanding the “rejection” of technology at the expense of architecture that represents a historical culture that embraces the richness of sensory experience in its arts and sciences. It is the embodiment of a way of life in which the observation of natural phenomena, including the movement of the stars and planets, is part of the worldview and defines a series of practices, from religious rituals, agricultural work, to personal decisions about when or who to marry.
Thus, observatories represent much more than the authority of the leader, they are crucial in scheduling important events such as wars, parties, and weddings. A dedication that Prince Jai Singh took very seriously, because Jaipur itself – the first planned city in the country, located in the semi-desert lands of Rajasthan – was astrologically oriented in the direction of his ascending sign, according to its founding date.
To reflect stability and constancy, the unusual sizes and surprising shapes were built of stone and masonry, moving away from the inaccuracies of metal tools used at the time, such as the astrolabe. According to research by Jai Singh, these tools lost accuracy due to wear of their moving parts, so he decided to create large-format solid ones, as well as increase accuracy due to their size. Among the dozens of structures, perhaps the most impressive is the 27-meter-high, whose shadow moves at a speed of four meters per hour.
Of the five observatories, all but one are still open to the public. Its immutable and grandiose forms confront each other in an aesthetic and sporty space that fascinates tourists but also provides city dwellers with a space for contemplation and relaxation. As Julio Cortázar (1914-1984), a famous Argentine writer, wrote when he visited them while living in India in the 1950s, Jantar Mantares are places where we feel “A hole in the fabric of time, this way of being, not above or behind, but between, […] Of life countless with its hours before us and aside, its time for everything, and its things in time“.
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