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Jantar Mantar, Jaipur

A Jantar Mantar is an assembly of stone-built astronomical instruments, designed to be used with the naked eye.

There were five Jantar Mantars in India, all of them built at the command of the Rajah Jai Singh II, who had a keen interest in mathematics, architecture and astronomy.

The largest example is the equinoctial sundial belonging to Jaipur's assembly of instruments, consisting of a gigantic triangular gnomon with the hypotenuse parallel to the Earth's axis. On either side of the gnomon is a quadrant of a circle, parallel to the plane of the equator. The instrument can be used with an accuracy of about 2 seconds by a "skilled observer" to measure the time of day, and the declination of the Sun and the other heavenly bodies.

It is the world's largest stone sundial, known as the Vrihat Samrat Yantra. The Jaipur Jantar Mantar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Laghu Samrat Yantra.
The Laghu Samrat Yantra is the smaller sundial at the monument, inclined at 27 degrees, to measure time, albeit less accurately than Vrihat Samrat Yantra.


Nadi Valaya Yantra.
The Nadi Valaya Yantra are two sundials on different faces of the instrument, the two faces representing north and south hemispheres; measuring the time to an accuracy of less than a minute.


Jai Prakash Yantra.
The Jai Prakash Yantra are two hemispherical bowl-based sundials with marked marble slabs that map inverted images of sky and allow the observer to move inside the instrument; measures altitudes, azimuths, hour angles, and declinations.


Rashi Valaya Yantra.
The Rashi Valaya Yantra are 12 gnomon dials that measure ecliptic coordinates of stars, planets and all 12 constellation systems.


Rama Yantra.
The Rama Yantra is an upright building used to find the altitude and the azimuth of the Sun.


Vrihat Samrat Yantra.
The Vrihat Samrat Yantra is the world's largest gnomon sundial, measures time in intervals of 2 seconds using shadow cast from the sunlight.


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Location

Location: Gangori Bazaar, J.D.A. Market, Pink City, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302002, India