Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 3 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of IndiaTod, James
History
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 3 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of India
Tod, James
Rajasthan (India) -- History; Rajput (Indic people) -- History
His general accuracy was further put to the
test in A.D. 1793 by our scientific countryman, Dr. W. Hunter, who
compared a series of observations on the latitude of Ujjain with that
established by the Rajput prince. The difference was 24″; and Dr. Hunter
does not depend on his own observations within 15″. Jai Singh made the
latitude 23° 10´ N.; Dr. Hunter, 23° 10´ 24″ N.
From the results of his varied observations, Jai Singh drew up a set of
tables, which he entitled _Zij Muhammadshahi_, dedicated to that
monarch; by these, all astronomical computations are yet made, and
almanacks constructed. It would be wrong—while considering these labours
of a prince who caused Euclid’s Elements, the treatises on plain and
spherical trigonometry, ‘Don Juan,’ Napier on the construction and use
of logarithms, to be translated into Sanskrit—to omit noticing the high
strain of devotion with which he views the wonders of the “Supreme
Artificer”; recalling the line of one of our own best poets:[9.2.9]
An undevout astronomer is mad.
The Rajput prince thus opens his preface: “Praise be to God, such that
the minutely discerning genius of the most profound geometers, in
uttering the smallest particle of it, may open the mouth in confession
of inability; and such adoration, that the study and accuracy of
astronomers, who measure the heavens, may acknowledge their
astonishment, and utter insufficiency! Let us devote ourselves at the
altar of the King of Kings, hallowed be his name! in the book of the
register of whose power the lofty orbs of heaven are only a few leaves;
and the stars, and that heavenly courser the sun, small pieces of money,
in the treasury of the empire of the Most High.
“From inability to comprehend the all-encompassing beneficence of his
power, Hipparchus is an ignorant clown, who wrings the hands of
vexation; and in the contemplation of his exalted majesty, Ptolemy is a
bat, who can never arrive at the sun of truth: the demonstrations of
Euclid are an imperfect sketch of the forms of his contrivance.
“But since the well-wisher of the works of creation, and the admiring
spectator of the works of infinite wisdom, Sawai Jai Singh, from the
first dawning of reason in his mind, and during its progress towards
maturity, was entirely devoted to the study [359] of mathematical
science, and the bent of his mind was constantly directed to the
solution of its most difficult problems; by the aid of the Supreme
Artificer, he obtained a thorough knowledge of its principles and
rules,” etc.[9.2.10]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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