Sawai Jai Singh
and His Times

Jai Singh the Ruler

When Jai Singh inherited the rule of his state, the Mughal empire was on the decline. Shortsighted policies of the aging monarch, Aurangzeb (ruled 1658-1707) had alienated the majority of the population, and rebellions were breaking out in all parts of the empire. Immediately after the death of Jai Singh's father, the emperor summoned Jai Singh to the imperial court in the South, where the emperor was making futile attempts to suppress a guerrilla war waged by the Marathas. In the South, Jai Singh met Jagannātha, a young man well versed in mathematics and astronomy. The contact with Jagannātha apparently further stimulated the budding interest of the young prince in astronomy and mathematics.

Portrait of Jai Singh from Sawai Man Singh II Museum, Jaipur

While Jai Singh was still in the South, the aging Emperor passed away (1707), and a war of succession broke out between his sons. In this war Jai Singh fought on the losing side. At the critical moment of a crucial battle, he switched over to the winning side. But the victor, Aurengzeb's eldest son, the future Emperor Bahādur Shāh, did not look favoribly upon Jai Singh's act of switching sides. He annexed Jai Singh's ancestral state to the imperial domain. However, Jai Singh and the other Rajput chieftains, who had also lost their ancestral lands to the imperial domain, united themselves. They drove the Mughals out of their territories and forced the newly crowned Emperor to give up their hereditary lands. In exchange, Jai Singh, along with the other Rajputs, accepted the Emperor as his suzerain and promised to serve the empire as his forefathers had done before.

During the decade following this episode, the political situation in Delhi became very uncertain. Several emperors ascended the "peacock throne" in succession, only to be deposed one after the other by natural or unnatural means. Finally, the "king makers" at the Imperial Court installed a great-grandson of Aurengzeb as the emperor and s semblance of stability returned to the country. The newly installed emperor, Muhammad Shāh, ruled for a long time, and Jai Singh remained on reasonable terms with him. Jai Singh served the empire in various capacities, such as governor of the provinces of Agra and Malwa. Jai Singh's acceptance of Muhammad Shāh as his overlord was more an act of convenience than anything else, as he and the Emperor never trusted each other.

Jai Singh spent his life during one of the most troubled, uncertain, and critical periods of Indian history, and he was involved directly or indirectly in just about every conflict of his time. When Jai Singh ascended the throne of Amber, his state had shrunk considerably in prestige and influence. The total area under direct control of the house of Amber was no more than 3000 square miles, and that too was taken away from his posession by the Emperor Bahādur Shāh. However, through his Machiavellian policies in which the end justified the means, Jai Singh extended his power and influence far beyond the three districts he had inherited. At one time, he and another Rajput raja, Ajīta Singh of Jodphur, "held all the country from thirty kosa (about 100 km) of Delhi, where the native land of Jai Singh began, to the shores of the sea at Surat (a prosperous port on the west coast of India)." In the 1730's, from the gates of Delhi to the banks of the river Narmada in central India, Jai Singh was the supreme authority. A French Jesuit traveller, Claude Boudier, confirms that Jai Singh indeed possessed a great deal of authority throughout the Mughal empire. "The passports issued in the name of the Raja," he writes, "were more respected than those issued in the name of the Emperor."

With great wealth and resources available to him as a powerful ruler, Jai Singh embarked upon an ambitious program of reviving astronomy in his country. To this effect, he designed instruments, built observatories, compiled an excellent library, assembled competent astronomers of different scientific backgrounds, and sent a fact-finding scientific mission to Europe. His scientific career lasted for more than 20 years until his death in 1743 at age 54.

Astronomical Efforts of Jai Singh