Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c6.s1.3

c6.s1.3

One of the two main points which this later account, as if in passing, tried to make was that the observatory only came into being some 50-60 years earlier and was not built in the sixteenth century—as stated by the Bengal commander-in-chief in his article published in 1777. To support this contention, it produced what it claimed to be the opinion of the Indian magistrate of Benares (who, incidentally, with his colleagues was in the process of being displaced by British judges and magistrates through the newly enacted ‘Cornwallis’ Judicial Regulations). The magistrate is alleged to have said that though the building was built by ‘Rajah Maunsing, for the repose of holy men and pilgrims’, the ‘observatory was built, by the Rajah Jeysing.’ Further, it was begun in 1794 *sumbut* (A.D. 1737) and finished in two years and that the Rajah died in 1800 *sumbut* (A.D. 1743). To this was added the even ‘weightier’ opinion of the Brahmins of Benares ‘one of whom is professor of astronomy in the new founded college.’ According to him, ‘they all agreed that this observatory never was used, nor did they think it capable of being used, for any nice observations; and believe it was built more for ostentation, than the promotion of useful knowledge.’ Besides these two points, the article gave the measurements of the various instruments but stated that ‘from the want of sufficient knowledge of the science of astronomy, I have not been able to describe the different instruments, and their uses, satisfactorily; however, you may rely on the measurements being taken with the greatest exactness.’