The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh c11.s2.t1.30

c11.s2.t1.30

48. History.—Jaipur city was built about A.D. 1728, and the observatory was constructed about A.D. 1734. The earliest detailed description is that by Tieffenthaler, a Jesuit Missionary, who travelled in India from 1743, the date of Jai Singh's death, to 1786; but the earliest reference to the observatory is possibly that by Father Boudier, who, with another priest, visited Jaipur in 1834, and made observations. He makes no references to the instruments,² and they were possibly only in the course of construction at the time of his visit. He, however, made observations for the determination of the latitude and longitude of the observatory itself.³