The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh c17.10

c17.10

83. We may leave out for the moment the question of European influence, as Jai Singh was really only on the border line of that influence, and consider the Hindu and Arabic schools. The characteristic difference between these is connected with practical work. The Hindus were practical astronomers, only in so far as they could calculate, from a given starting point with given rules, the positions of the planets, eclipses, etc., with some accuracy. This, of course, implies a very considerable amount of knowledge and skill; but the Hindus had no instruments of precision of their own before Jai Singh's time; neither were they interested in making practical observations of the heavenly bodies. Their rules and the elements given in their approved works sufficed them. The standpoint of the Arabs was entirely different:¹ they were particularly interested in the verification and correction of previously recorded results. They built what were then the finest observatories in the world, and they perfected the astrolabe to an extraordinary degree.