Spectacle, Sovereignty and Science: Landscapes of Power and Politics in Early Modern India, c. 1721-1743 analyzes the relationship between landscape and power as viewed from the intersection of spectacle and science. Taking as its starting point the network of astronomical observatories built under the patronage of Sawai Jai Singh II of Jaipur in the second quarter of the eighteenth century, this book examines the ways in which the physical environment shaped the practice of astronomy and contributed to particular formations of political and social power in northern India. A reconceptualization of the design and working relationships between the observatories in Jaipur, Shahjahanabad, Ujjain, Mathura and Varanasi, this book demonstrates that the observatories served as a catalyst for putting knowledge and people in motion, positioning Sawai Jai Singh as a major participant in the global conversation about astronomy. Drawing on work produced across a variety of disciplines, this project uses the built environment to tease out the traces of motion to explain Sawai Jai Singh’s employment of science and spectacle to localize scientific knowledge and to negotiate a dominant, yet occasionally fragile, position within the unique social and political structure of the Mughal Empire.