The monument, denotified as a designated protest site earlier this month, joins a Delhi-wide line-up of landmarks for the festival, which runs from December 4 to March 21
Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, which was denotified as a designated protest site earlier this month, has been chosen as one of the venues for the India Biennale 2026. The festival begins on December 4 and runs until March 21.
According to the Biennale’s website, the second edition takes its title from “the oldest answer to this newest condition”, the phrase “Tat Tvam Asi”, or “You Are That”. It describes this as the Upanishadic insight that the self is not separate from the world it beholds.
The first India Art, Architecture and Design Biennale was held in 2023 at the Red Fort. This one is being billed as the second edition, and on a much bigger scale. Across Delhi, landmarks have been marked out as sites for exhibitions, immersive experiences and performances.
The list of venues includes Purana Qila, the Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Agrasen ki Baoli, Humayun’s Tomb, Safdarjung Tomb, Sabz Burj, the National Museum, Lodhi Garden, Sakri Ghumti, and Choti Ghumti, among others. Jantar Mantar is not listed on the official website at the moment, though it is reported that it will be added soon.
Among the exhibitions listed for the India Biennale 2026 are the Bihar Museum Exhibition at Purana Qila and Arugu: A Commons for Play at the Red Fort. Varanasi The Timeless, by Paresh Maity and Ritu Beri, will be at Qutub Minar, while Antar Yatra, a Journey Back into the Womb of Consciousness, will be at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, among many others.
An observatory before a protest site
Across the country, Jantar Mantar is known first as the place where people come to be heard. It was built long before that, in 1724, by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur, an astronomer-king who raised five such observatories across northern India, in Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura. The Delhi observatory was built during the reign of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah.