The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh c13.28

c13.28

The sighting arrangement is fixed to the big circle by a pin, and this pin is fixed by a cotter or wedge, shaped roughly into some semblance of a horse's head (figure 68). In the section on the astrolabe (page 18) it was stated that the Arabs called such a wedge *faras* (' horse '), and that in mediaeval Europe it was generally made into some semblance of a horse's head (see figures 24). "Thorw which Pyn," wrote Chaucer, "ther goth a litel wegge which that is cleped the hors that streyneth alle these parties to hepe." There is abundant evidence to show that the horse shaped design of the wedge was brought to India by the Muslims, and the example on the Chakra Yantra is interesting as evidence of the persistence of a traditional design, and in some degree as evidence of the ultimate source of the design of Jai Singh's instruments.