Why does the story of
Jai Singh need to be told?
During my childhood, we were often asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and I remember answering with a confident, “I want to be an astronaut.” I must confess this was majorly due to the discussions we had about Kalpana Chawla at school, that my inner self wanted to emulate, like a literal interpretation of ‘shoot for the stars’. It felt exciting, scary and almost unbelievable to even imagine going to space and living there. Mysteries of the universe and speculations about the great unknowns truly fascinated me as a child.
But the biggest moment of wonder was the time I learnt of our ‘Cosmic Address’. It was is almost unimaginable to grasp how infinitesimally tiny we are in this huge cosmos, especially considering how the universe is still growing larger everyday. Other questions like how does the planet remain suspended in space? Will I fall from the face of the Earth if I am standing at the Equator? All of this only made me more excited and grateful about this planet that we live on. Eventually I learned about the planetary laws of motions, gravity, rotations, revolutions and many more astronomical and scientific concepts, but they're something missing from that entire experience.
As I began revisiting this topic through the opportunity given to us by ASI, I realised that space has always been astonishing to me, but over the years in high school that magic faded away. It simply remained a subject, distant, cold and forgotten, much like Pluto. At no point were we given the idea that developments in science or mathematics, affected the world around us, socially, politically, religiously in any tangible way. The amazement and magic was lost and the impersonal words in the textbooks reflected none of its true mystique.
As I began reading about the History of Indian Astronomy, the evolutionary nature of scientific thinking seemed truly remarkable. To imagine that we went from living in caves, discovering fire and hunting animals for food to now travelling to the moon and making incredible discoveries about space, just seems unbelievable. Advancements and discoveries were made even during the most difficult times. One of the darkest periods in Indian History is towards the end of the 17th century as the decline of the Mughal Empire, led to complete anarchy and unrest in the nation. Even at this time a young Rajput king, decided to pursue astronomy, as he understood that creating a secular calendar based on logical reasoning and observations, would unify the people.
–– · ––
Check out the final book below ⬇
Here is a breakdown of the process followed for creating the book :)
For maintaining a uniformity across all the languages, the Noto Sans Family was chosen
as it offered a wide range of accessible fonts across multiple languages.
Currently I'm working on the second edition of this book, which should be released sometime next year (2024)!
