The exact spot from which the Indian Meridian Time passes

The world is divided into time zones based on the longitudinal lines running from the North Pole to the South Pole. There is a place marked on the Prayagraj – Varanasi Highway. Besides being slightly technical there is a lot of history to it too.

Location of Indian Meridian Time Longitude

Since it is right on the highway there is less likely chance that you will miss it.

History of time keeping in India

The Sanskrit treatise named Surya Siddhanta contains 14 chapters, all dealing with principles of Astronomy. Though the exact date of this book is not known, it is approximated that it was made in 4th century CE. Most of the text books those days were verses which mostly used to be passed verbally. The book specified the zero latitude as passing through the city of Ujjain.

The same book also measured the day to be 24 hours, but the smallest time unit was 4 seconds which corresponded to one breathing cycle.

Despite being so advanced, ancient India never united as far as time is concerned. Each king maintained his own time zone in his kingdom based on the Hindu calendar. Once the British started ruling India, they also did the same thing. They created the Madras Time in 1802. It began to be known as the “Railway time of India”. Since it was established by East India Company, once the British rule began they phased it out too.

In 1905, British chose the meridian passing east of Allahabad as the central meridian. Time coordination began for the first time in India when telephone and telegraph systems started relaying the precise time to all the major power canters in the country. Till Independence, Bombay and Calcutta maintained a separate time zone.

Post Independence

India adopted Indian Standard Time (IST) as the official time of India. First the longitude of 82 degrees and 5 minutes was chosen which passed through a place called Naini near Prayagraj. Later it was shifted to 82 degrees and 30 minutes which brought it to the present place in Mirzapur district.

The Allahabad Observatory is given the responsibility to maintain the Indian Standard Time.

Since 1951 the Indian Govt has consistently resisted efforts to divide the country into more than one time zone.

The National Physical Laboratory at New Delhi is responsible to provide official time signals. It does that using the highly accurate atomic clocks. This time is synchronised by broadcasts by Doordarshan and All India Radio.

Youtube link to Indian Meridian Time

Above video has been shot on GoPro 11 Black content creators edition. By far this is the best camera which provides ample battery life for the blogger on the move. Right now the GoPro is not so great with pictures, but who knows with time to come that might just improve too.

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