The Spatialization of Knowledge and Power at the Astronomical Observatories of Sawai Jai Singh II, c. 1721-1743 CE
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation is about the production of astronomical knowledge in northern India during the eighteenth century and the specific architectural elements and landscape configurations that affected the mobility and utility of that knowledge. Centered on a group of five astronomical observatories built between 1721 and 1743 CE under the patronage of the Maharaja Dhiraja of Jaipur and Amer, Sawai Jai Singh II, this project is an analysis of the relationship between patron, architecture, and space, and as such, represents an alternative history of observatories, one that is underpinned by motion, exchange, adaptation, and creativity. My project embraces the spatial and the material, and argues that architecture and landscape are not simply witnesses to history but participants in the process of change and transformation. This project argues that our understanding of the spatial and intellectual relationships among the observatories has been shaped by colonial historiography and calls for a reading of the historical landscape that recognizes both the power and the limitations of the agency of the local patron and populace. In this study, I demonstrate that the observatory outside the walls of Shahjahanabad functioned as the primary site for scientific production for several years before Sawai Jai Singh directed his attentions toward the observatory in Jaipur c. 1728 CE. A close reading of the plan and architecture of Jaipur reveals the multiple types of knowledge that were emplaced in the local landscape as a result of the construction of the observatory and shows that while the ostensible goal of the observatory was the production of astronomical knowledge, ancillary knowledge—accounting, building, political—was privileged in the intellectual institutions of the city. My analysis of the relationship between these institutions and the greater urban fabric disentangles the complexity of labor divisions at the observatory and highlights Sawai Jai Singh’s desire to consol…
abstract: This dissertation is about the production of astronomical knowledge in northern India during the eighteenth century and the specific architectural elements and landscape configurations that affected the mobility and utility of that knowledge. Centered on a group of five astronomical observatories built between 1721 and 1743 CE under the patronage of the Maharaja Dhiraja of Jaipur and Amer, Sawai Jai Singh II, this project is an analysis of the relationship between patron, architecture, and space, and as such, represents an alternative history of observatories, one that is underpinned by motion, exchange, adaptation, and creativity. My project embraces the spatial and the material, and argues that architecture and landscape are not simply witnesses to history but participants in the process of change and transformation. This project argues that our understanding of the spatial and intellectual relationships among the observatories has been shaped by colonial historiography and calls for a reading of the historical landscape that recognizes both the power and the limitations of the agency of the local patron and populace. In this study, I demonstrate that the observatory outside the walls of Shahjahanabad functioned as the primary site for scientific production for several years before Sawai Jai Singh directed his attentions toward the observatory in Jaipur c. 1728 CE. A close reading of the plan and architecture of Jaipur reveals the multiple types of knowledge that were emplaced in the local landscape as a result of the construction of the observatory and shows that while the ostensible goal of the observatory was the production of astronomical knowledge, ancillary knowledge—accounting, building, political—was privileged in the intellectual institutions of the city. My analysis of the relationship between these institutions and the greater urban fabric disentangles the complexity of labor divisions at the observatory and highlights Sawai Jai Singh’s desire to consol…
author: Johnson-Roehr, Susan N.
language: en
keywords: Architecture, India, South Asia, Landscape, Astronomy, Observatories, Sawai Jai Singh II, Jaipur, Delhi, Ujjain, Mathura, Varanasi, Power, Jesuits
date published: 2011-05-25T14:22:51Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:23Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/24469