THE ANCIENT PRIME MERIDIAN

The study of environment, region and places is geography. In our geography

textbooks, we all have read about the prime meridian of the world. But, what is Prime
Meridian? Prime Meridian is the zero degree longitude and every place on Earth is
measured in terms of its East or West from this Line. So, what is the prime Meridian
of the world? It is Greenwich in London. Prime Meridian is of great significance
because it is used as the basis of the world time zone and measuring system called
longitude. However, Greenwich was declared Prime Meridian in 1884 by Britishers.
So how did India manage its time before that? So now let us discuss India's
Greenwich i.e “The ancient Prime Meridian" - Ujjain.
Avanti, Pratikalpa or Ujjaini has many names and specialities. This famous place is
popular for the Kumbh Mela festival, to the sacred ghats of holy Shipra river, to
Ujjain's loved food or to the most famous and pious one of the 12 Jyotirlingas 'The
Mahakaleshwar Temple'. Ujjain has everything to be adored and visited. Ujjain also
known as the ' city of temples' has great significance in Hindu religion as well as in
Hindu calendars.
Ujjain is considered as one of the oldest cities of India. Mahakaleshwar temple in
Ujjain is famous in the world and is one of the 12 jyotirlingas of India. The word Kaal
means time and Mahakaal means the actual controller who is Lord Shiva, and
thus time is controlled from there; this place is Ujjain. There are many scientific
locations to prove this, that Ujjain is the Control Centre on time. The Prime Meridian
and the Tropic of Cancer intersect at 0 degree longitude at the
Mahakaleshwar Jyotirling, which just seems like a miracle. Even today, wherever
you may be born, when panchang or horoscope as per hindu almanac is drawn up it
is based on Ujjain's time.
as per Surya Siddhantam, which is the oldest surviving astronomical book and is
believed to be written by Aryabhatta in around 3000 BC elaborates Ujjain's
Mahakaleshwar  Jyotirlinga is the place where zero degree longitude meets the
tropic of cancer. The computation of time and positioning of Earth was done
with Ujjain's Mahakaleshwar as reference point. Surya Siddhantam gives rules to
calculate the motion of various planets and the moon relative to various
constellations, and calculates the orbits of astronomical bodies, and this explains the
great scientific knowledge of Indian astronomers even so long before.
In 1725, Raja Sawai jai Singh of Jaipur had set up an observatory or Vedshala in
Ujjain. It consists of 13 architectural astronomical instruments. Vedshala was
constructed with the aim to measure the local time, eclipses etc. With this we get to
know that RajaJai Singh was a man of high intellect, also this is not only one
observatory constructed by him, but he had made four more observatories in Jaipur,
Mathur, Delhi and varanasi. But the thing most special about Vedshala in Ujjain is
that till date it is the most prominent observatory for conducting astronomical
studies. 
Bhaskaracharya, the author of mathematical scriptures like Lilavati and Beej Mantra
discovered the presence of gravitational force in Ujjain itself. Lalaycharaya,
Shankarnarayana repeatedly speak about the zero meridian of Ujjain and the zone
concept of the world with Indian Meridian as its centre, they understood and
applied the meridians and relative measurements. Not just Indian astronomers
but also Greek geographers Ptolemy give mention of Indian Prime meridian in their
maps.
So, this is the greatest of greatest India and the holy city of Ujjain which is a quest of
ancient astronomy and mathematics. It is our duty to preserve this heritage and give
importance to the ANCIENT PRIME MERIDIAN OF INDIA “UJJAIN".