The Asiatic Society

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Not to be confused with Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Asiatic Society
Emblem of the Asiatic Society, Kolkata
Old building
The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, old building
Established1784; 240 years ago (1784)
Location1 Park Street
Kolkata – 700016
West Bengal, India
TypeLibrary
FounderSir William Jones
PresidentSwapan Kumar Pramanick[1]
Public transit accessPark Street
Websiteasiaticsocietykolkata.org

The Asiatic Society is a

Calcutta, the then-capital of the Presidency of Fort William
.

At the time of its foundation, this Society was named as "Asiatick Society". In 1825, the society was renamed as "The Asiatic Society". In 1832 the name was changed to "The Asiatic Society of Bengal" and again in 1936 it was renamed as "The Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal". Finally, on 1 July 1951, the name of the society was changed to its present one. The Society is housed in a building at Park Street in Kolkata (Calcutta). The Society moved into this building during 1808. In 1823, the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta was formed and all the meetings of this society were held in the Asiatic Society.

History

Old building of The Asiatic Society, c. 1828, an early 19th century lithograph

In January 1784, Sir William Jones sent out a circular-letter to a selected number of British residents of Calcutta with a view to establish a society for the Asiatic studies. At his invitation, 30 British residents met in the Grand Jury Room of the Supreme Court (in Calcutta's Fort William) on 15 January 1784. The meeting was presided over by Sir Robert Chambers. At this meeting, Jones explained the aims of the Society he would establish. The Memorandum of Articles of the Asiatic Society, prepared by Jones said:[2]

The bounds of investigations will be the geographical limits of Asia, and within these limits its enquiries will be extended to whatever is performed by man or produced by nature.

Notable early members were

Captain Thomas Preston. The French architect Jean-Jacques Pichou[3] made certain modifications to it and constructed a two-storeyed building at the site. This 15,071 ft² building was built at a cost of Rs. 30,000. The first quarterly meeting of the Society for 1808 was held at its new building on 3 February 1808.[2]

From 1784 to 1828, only Europeans were elected members of the Society. In 1829, at the initiative of

Dwarakanath Tagore, Sivchandra Das, Maharaja Baidyanath Roy, Maharaja Bunwari Govind Roy, Raja Kalikrishna Bahadur, Rajchunder Das, Ram Comul Sen, and Prasanna Coomar Tagore. On 12 December 1832, Ram Comul Sen was elected 'Native Secretary'. Later, Rajendralal Mitra became the first Indian President in 1885.[2] Both the orientalist Brajendranath De, and one of his grandsons, the historian Barun De, were for some time vice-president of the Asiatic Society.[4][5][6]

Library

The Asiatic Society building, Park Street, Kolkata, April 2013.

One of the main activities of the Asiatic Society was to collect the old manuscripts of India.

Shahjahan. The number of journals in the possession of the library is about 80,000 at present.The library also has coins issued by Chhatrapati Shivaji Mahraj.[timeframe?
]

The early collection of this library was enriched by the contributions it received from its members. On 25 March 1784, the library received seven Persian manuscripts from Henri Richardson. The next contribution came from William Marsden, who donated his book The History of Sumatra (1783) on 10 November 1784. Robert Home, the first Library-in-Charge (1804) donated his small but valuable collection of works on art. The first accession of importance was a gift from the Seringapatam Committee on 3 February 1808 consisting of a collection from the Palace Library of Tipu Sultan. The library received the Surveyor-General Colonel Mackenzie's collection of manuscripts and drawings in December 1822.

Since 1849, the Society has printed Bibliotheca Indica, a collection of rare and unpublished works belonging to or treating of Oriental literature and containing original text-editions as well as translations into English, and also grammars, dictionaries, bibliographies, and studies.

Museum

Minor Rock Edict of Ashoka (circa 250 BCE) is visible at the Asiatic Society.[8]

The museum of the Society was founded in 1814 under the superintendence of Nathaniel Wallich. The rapid growth of its collection is evident from its first catalogue, published in 1849. By 1849, the Society had its own museum consisting of inscriptions in stone and metal, icons, old coins, and Sanskrit manuscripts etc.[7]

The Arabic, Persian and Urdu section of the Asiatic Society.

When the

Asoka (c. 250 BCE) and a significant collection of copper plate inscriptions, coins, sculptures, manuscripts, and archival records. Some masterpieces, like Joshua Reynolds’ Cupid asleep on Cloud, Guido Cagnacci's Cleopatra, Thomas Daniell's A Ghat at Benares, and Peter Paul Rubens
’ Infant Christ are also in the possession of this museum.

Journal of the Asiatic Society

The Society's journal has had several changes of name, sometimes reflecting changes in the Society. It is currently called the Journal of the Asiatic Society.[9][10]

  • 1788-1842 Asiatick Researches, Transactions of the Society Instituted in Bengal, for enquiring into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences and Literature, of Asia
  • 1832 The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal - James Prinsep was the founding editor
  • 1953 The Journal of the Asiatic Society

List of presidents

Main article: List of Presidents of The Asiatic Society.

See also

Works

  • Asiatic Society of Bengal (1832). Asiatic researches or transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal, for inquiring into the history and antiquities, the arts, sciences, and literature, of Asia, Volume 17. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  • Asiatick researches. 1832. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  • Asiatick Researches, Or, Transactions of the Society Instituted in Bengal, for Inquiring Into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia, Volume 17. Contributor Asiatick Society (Calcutta, India). Bengal Military Orphans Press. 1832. Retrieved 24 April 2014.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

References and sources

References
  1. ^ "Council | Asiatic Society". www.asiaticsocietykolkata.org. The Asiatic Society. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d Chakrabarty, R. (2008). The Asiatic Society:1784-2008, An Overview in Time Past and Time Present: Two Hundred and Twenty-five Years of the Asiatic Society' Kolkata: The Asiatic Society, pp.2-24
  3. ^ Sometimes written Pichon (or Jean Jacques Pissaun)
  4. ^ "Birth Centenary of B.De Celebrated" in The Statesman, Wednesday, 24 December 1952
  5. ^ "He Rehabilitated Persian in Bengal: Tributes to Late B.De: Birthday Celebration" in Amrita Bazar Patrika, Wednesday, 24 December 1952
  6. ^ "Historian and Administrator" - Aniruddha Ray Retrieved 2015-03-03
  7. ^
    ISBN 0-9673823-1-9
    .
  8. ^ "Image of the full display".
  9. ^ See Books Online https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=jasiatbengal Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  10. ^ Journal of the Asiatic Society https://www.asiaticsocietykolkata.org/history
Sources
  • Mitra, S.K. (1974). The Asiatic Society, Calcutta: The Asiatic Society.

External links

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