The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh c13.2

c13.2

56. The observatory is situated on the roof of the old part of the building known as the Mānmandira, which was built by Mān Singh, a Rājāh of Amber, who flourished at the beginning of the seventeenth century. (He died in A.D. 1614.) This building is on the west bank of the Ganges, near the Maṇi Karṇikā ghāt, and 1¾ miles south-east by south from Queen's College. The proper approach is from the river front, that from the city being through narrow, unsavoury alleys. "Though not very architectural in its general appearance," writes Fergusson,¹ "(it) has on the river face a balconied window, which is a fair and pleasing specimen of his (Mān Singh's) age." (Figure 64).