India Guide
Madhya Pradesh
The Vedha Shala observatory
Address: 1km southwest of the railway station
Price: Rs2
Opening time: Daily dawn to dusk
In addition to being a major religious centre, Ujjain was the birthplace of mathematical astronomy in India, research into the motion of the stars and planets having been carried out here since the time of Ashok. Later, Hindu astronomers fixed both the first meridian of longitude and the Tropic of Cancer here – the reason why Raja Jai Singh of Jaipur, governor of Malwa under the Mughal emperor Mohammad Shah, chose it as the site for another of his surreal open-air observatories.
Built in 1725, the Vedha Shalaobservatory overlooks a bend in the River Shipra. The complex is nowhere near as large as its more famous cousins in Delhi and Jaipur, the Jantar Mantars, but remains in excellent condition with very informative guides (free but they may expect a tip) and labelling. Local astronomers continue to use its five instruments, or yantras, to formulate ephemeredes (charts predicting the positions of the planets), which you can buy at the site. An auto-rickshaw from the town centre costs around Rs30.