The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh c4.s1.1

c4.s1.1

2. Of the works of his predecessors and contemporaries there is evidence that Jai Singh was acquainted with the following: Ptolemy's *Almagest*; the astronomical tables of Ulugh Beg; some Treatises on the Astrolabe; La Hire's *Tabulae Astronomicae*; and Flamsteed's *Historia Cœlestis Britannica*; also certain western mathematical works such as Euclid's *Elements*, a treatise on plane and spherical trigonometry and on the construction of logarithms. This, of course, cannot be an exhaustive list since his valuable library no longer exists entire,¹ and it would be fairly safe to assume that Jai Singh collected and studied all the available astronomical works; indeed it is recorded specifically that he procured from Europe, besides the tables of La Hire, those of earlier dates.