The Yantra Mandir, often called the Jantar Mantar, is an astronomical observatory made up of a series of astronomical instruments, built on the orders of Maharaja Jai Singh II in his new capital of Jaipur between 1727 and 1733. The observatory was inspired by another he had previously built in Delhi, capital of the Mughal Empire. He also had three others built, in Varanasi, Mathura and Ujjain, but the Jaipur observatory is the largest. It was built for the benefit of Jai Singh II’s guru, Pandit Jagannath, with the aim of establishing astral charts and determining the most auspicious times for major events (weddings, travel, etc.). The name of the site comes from yantra, meaning instrument, and mandir, meaning temple — the temple of instruments. It is said to have originally been called yantra mantra, mantra meaning formula.
