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The Asiatic Society

Asiatic Society was established on 15th January 1784 by Sir William Jones in Calcutta, as the ‘Asiatik Society’. The purpose of this society was and still remains the exploration and study of Asia and of all its contents. Society was renamed many times since 1852, when the members discarded the archaic ‘k’ in ‘The Asiatik Society’ which went on to be altered to ‘The Asiatic Society of Bengal’ and again to ‘Royal Asiatic Society’ and finally reverting back to ‘The Asiatic Society’ formally, on the 1st of July, 1951. In the early years, the society members did not have a place to house the Society and meetings were held at any places of convenience. When the construction of the Society’s building at Calcutta (now Kolkata) was completed in 1808, it became a permanent icon of the Society.

History

On January 15, 1784 in Calcutta thirty European gentlemen held a meeting presided by Chief Justice Sir Robert Chambers.. There Sir William Jones proposed the formation of a Society for exploration of every facet of Asia. All of the European gentlemen attending the meeting, accepted the membership of this Society.

The first publications were introduced with the title ‘Asiatick Researches’ in 1788 with the early publications being private but afterwards the Society executed the publications. From 1788 to 1839 the ‘Asiatic Researches’ comprised of twenty volumes; which henceforth was titled as the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society’ which became the mouthpiece of the Asiatic Society.

Library

Currently, the Asiatic Society has a collected works of almost 1,17,000 books and 79,000 journals in all the major world languages. It has also a collection of 293 maps, microfiches of 48,000 works, microfilms of 387,003 pages, 182 paintings, 2500 pamphlets and 2150 photographs. The library also houses several rare or extinct books in which the oldest printed material is Juli Firmici's Astronomicorum Libri from 1499.

The Society’s library also houses an extraordinary collection of manuscripts in 26 different scripts accounting to a total of about 47000 manuscripts. The collection ranges from Indian scripts like Assamese, Gurumukhi, Urdu, Modi, Nagari, Sarda to scripts from across Asia for example Arabic, Chinese, Turki, Javanese, Armenian and more. The manuscript media is also rare and varied including Palm and Palmyra leaves, tree bark, and rare papers.

Museum

In 1814 the Asiatic Society Museum was constructed under the guidance of N. Wallich and its first catalogue was published in 1849. When the Indian Museum of Calcutta was established, the Society transferred most of their valuable collections to it. The Society still has a museum of its own which has a rock edict of Asoka and many other classics.