Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c6.s1.4

c6.s1.4

The subject of the Benares observatory was again taken up in 1798 by William Hunter, an assistant to the British Resident at the Marhatta capital at Poona, in an article, ‘Some account of the astronomical labours of Jayasinha, Raja of Ambhere, or Jayanagar’. The interest in Raja Jayasinha is explained: ‘Arising superior to the prejudices of education, of national pride and religion’, Jayasinha strove to enrich his country ‘with scientific truth derived from a foreign source’, in this particular instance, Europe. The writer was quite candid and outspoken about his purpose. He said: ‘I have always thought, that after having convinced the eastern nations of our superiority in policy and in arms, nothing can contribute more to the extension of our national glory, than the diffusion among them of a taste for European science. And as the means of promoting so desirable an end, those among the natives who have penetration to see, and ingenuousness to own its superior accuracy and evidence, ought to be cherished.’¹⁰