Vedshala, Ujjain

The Vedshala is an astronomical observatory in Ujjain built by Raja Jai Singh of Amber, who also translated works of Euclid and Ptolemy from Arabic into Sanskrit. It is one of five observatories he set up in India, the others being in Delhi, Mathura, Jaipur and Varanasi. It was meant to help Hindu astrologers and scholars draw up astronomical tables and forecast the positions of the sun, moon and planets.

The original instruments include a sundial, the Nadi Valay Yantra, a transit instrument, the Digyansa Yantra and the Shanku Yantra, and some of the masonry instruments are still used for research. Plaques in Hindi and English around the site explain how each one works. Astronomers here followed solstices and equinoxes and kept track of time.