SUN-DIALS IN INDIA 

 By Holdridge O. Collins, LL.D. 



TO THE lover of Astronomy, probably the most interesting 

 objects in the Orient are the ponderous structures of bronze 

 in China, and of masonry in India, erected during the early 

 centuries of the Christian era. 



Like the Elgin marbles of the Parthenon, the most striking and 

 beautiful bronze instruments of China, were looted and transported 

 to Germany by her military forces during the Boxer war, but the 

 Observatories in India remain, some of them in ruins and others, 

 whose huge dimensions, at this day practically in perfect condition, 

 have resisted the devastations of war and the attacks of the ele- 

 ments during the many centuries of their existence. It is not feas- 

 ible in one article to describe all the Astronomical implements, 

 appliances and structures now as well preserved in India, as when 

 erected, but it has been thought that a statement of the three great- 

 est Sun-dials, standing in all their huge grandeur, may be of in- 

 terest. 



All the Astronomical Observatories and accessories in India 

 were designed and erected by Maharajah Jai Singh, who rectified 

 the calendar and corrected the Astronomical tables then in use, 

 under the encouragement and financial appropriations of the Em- 

 peror Mohammed Shah. 



He first constructed several brass instruments similar to those 

 used by the Mohammedan astronomers of Samarcand and else- 

 where ; but finding that brass instruments were not accurate owing 

 to their small size, the lack of divisions into minutes and seconds, 

 the constant shaking and wearing of their axes, the displacement 

 of the centers of their circles, and the shifting of their planes, he 

 acquired the certain knowledge of the inaccurate determinations of 

 Hipparchus, Ptolemy and others of the ancients. Erecting at 

 Delhi, the Capital of the Mogul Empire, instruments pi stone and 

 lime, of perfect stability and huge size, all of his own invention, he 

 found them giving him most satisfactory results, and, in order to 

 corroborate his observations at Delhi, he built similar instruments 

 at Jaipur, Muttra, Ujjain and Benares. 



The Observatory at Muttra no longer exists and the one at 

 Ujjain, passing from the possession of the Moguls to that of the 

 Peshwas, is now owned by Scindia. Only those at Benares, Delhi 

 and Jaipur are now in the possession or control of the English gov- 

 ernment. 



In Isaiah xxxviii, 8, is found the first record of the existence 



of a Sun-dial : 



"Behold I will cause the shadow on the steps, which is gone 

 down on the dial of Ahaz with the sun to return backward ten 



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