No Longer Eclipsed

Restoration Project Helps Indian Observatory Come Alive After Centuries of Neglect

NEW DELHI

A group of restless teenage students huddled inside a giant cylindrical sundial with measuring tape, chalk and string on a Saturday morning in the heart of India's capital.

"Identify the umbra and the penumbra. Mark the center of the shadow," urged the astronomy instructor, Shiv Kumar. He pointed to the angle of the sun's shadow on the 18th-century instrument, which was built to measure the altitude and direction of celestial objects.

Squeezing themselves between narrow radials, the boys squinted to see the edge of the shadow falling on a wall patterned with countless cracks.

"For so long, we thought this was just a giant, historic ruin," said Nikhil Chaturvedi, 13, a lean, wide-eyed eighth-grader, as he pulled out a logbook. "We thought these do not work anymore."

His friend, wearing a black Nirvana T-shirt and listening to a loud Hindi rock song on his cellphone, held up the measuring tape.

"We thought our school astro-club was all about looking through the telescope," he said. "But now we can study the universe the way the kings did."

Built in the 1720s by a scholarly regional king, Jai Singh II, the decaying brick-and-lime observatory called Jantar Mantar is again coming alive.

Since 2004, a team of amateur astronomers, students, conservationists, archaeologists, historians and educators have undertaken a major initiative to recalibrate and restore the masonry instruments in New Delhi's giant sundials. To do so, they have to research the function and form of the instruments and, for the first time, create a database that will guide restorers as they seek to make the observatory operational after years of disuse.

Already, enthusiasts are beginning to flock to Jantar Mantar during solstices and eclipses, just as the king might have wanted.

"The creator built these magnificent structures not just for correcting the almanac and scheduling the empire's activity. He wanted to foster greater appreciation of astronomy among the common citizen," said Ratnashree Nandiwada, director of New Delhi's Nehru Planetarium, which has been spearheading the research. "We are working toward functional restoration of the Jantar Mantar that will undo centuries of neglect."

The Jantar Mantar compound consists of five red-and-white structures that trap light in crooked crevices, twisting stairs, angular platforms and circular domes. The structures help measure the position of the sun, predict eclipses and track the movement of stars. Spread over a large, open area and lined with tall palm trees and manicured lawns, the geometrically shaped instruments -- some as tall as 90 feet -- are often used by visiting children to climb or play hide and seek.