The Department of Archaeology and Museums in Rajasthan, since its inception in 1950, has been making concerted efforts to discover, preserve, protect, exhibit and interpret the cultural legacy embodied in various forms of art and architecture. The Department has 331 protected monuments,17 museums,1art gallery, 04 propose museums and 44 archaeological sites under its control comprising of sacred and secular monuments, such as exquisite temple, colossal mosques, massive forts, splendid palaces, artistic cenotaphs, carved and painted havelies.
The Jantar Mantar, in Jaipur, is an astronomical observation site built in the early 18th century. It includes a set of some 20 main fixed instruments. They are monumental examples in masonry of known instruments but which in many cases have specific characteristics of their own. Designed for the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye, they embody several architectural and instrumental innovations. This is the most significant, most comprehensive, and the best preserved of India’s historic Observatories. It is an expression of the astronomical skill and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period.
