Astronomical Efforts of Sawai Jai Singh
- A Review

Zīj-i Muhammad Shāhī

Jai Singh's stated objective had been to produce a set of improved astronomical tables. Recent researches have shown that his tables are based on the planetary tables of de La Hire⁵. The tables, drawn up by a team of observers and nujūmīs, as mentioned earlier, and completed sometime between 1727 and 1735, were dedicated to the reigning emperor Muhammad Shah. The tables are, therefore, called Zīj-i Muhammad Shāhī -- the astronomical tables of Muhammad Shah. Zīj-i Muhammad Shāhī, henceforth abbreviated as ZMS, is a 400-page long traditional work on astronomy, of which a dozen copies survive to this day.

After comparing five different copies of the ZMS, the author has concluded that there were at least two editions of this book². The often-reported British Museum copy belongs to the second edition. Further, there were three commentaries said to have been written on the ZMS³. To the world of astronomy at large, the ZMS is of little use; it had been superseded by better tables in Europe even before it was published. However, to the traditional scholar of the country, to whom Western science was out of reach, it remained a valuable resource for generations. The British Resident of Jaipur, J. P. Stratton, writing in 1885, pointed out that the ZMS was still being used there at that time (Purohit Hari Narayan Collection).

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