The sacred city of New Ujjain is home to Jantar Mantar or Vedh Shala. Maharaja Jai Singh II, also known as Sawai Jai Singh constructed an observatory in 1725 that included 13 architectural astronomical instruments. He constructed five observatories in the eighteenth century in the north Indian cities of Shahjahanabad (Delhi), Jaipur, Ujjain, Mathura, and Varanasi. One of these five observatories, the Vedshala, was constructed while he served as the governor of Ujjain. Vedh Shala was built with the intention of determining eclipses, local time, height (of the location), as well as the declination of the Sun, stars, and planets.
