Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c6.s1.8

c6.s1.8

The eighteenth century dating of the Benares observatory thus rests on the two articles published in 1793 and 1798 respectively; the first, at the instance of a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the second, in a longer piece wishing to convince the Eastern nations of the superiority of European eighteenth century science with a view to ‘contribute more to the extension of our national glory.’ What Tavernier said in his published, ‘Travels’ was: ‘Near to this great Pagod, upon the summer-west, stands a kind of a college which the Raja Jesseing the most potent of all the idolaters in the Mogul’s empire, built for the education of the youth of the better sort.’¹⁴ Tavernier visited Benares in 1655-6. It may be added that quite a few ‘Jayasinha’ (spelt variously) have been Rajas of ‘Ambhere’ through the centuries. It is possible that this fact has also contributed to different writers claiming widely separate dates for the construction of the Benares observatory.