Thirty men gathered in a Calcutta courtroom in 1784. Within two years, one of them had rewritten the history of human language.
Timeline
- 15 January 1784: Sir William Jones founds the Asiatick Society in Calcutta.
- 2 February 1786: Jones’s Third Anniversary Discourse links Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin to a common ancestor.
- 1837: James Prinsep, the Society’s Secretary, deciphers the Brahmi script, unlocking Ashoka’s own edicts.
- 1951: The Society is renamed simply “The Asiatic Society,” the name it holds today.
- 15 August 2026: The Society marks India’s 80th Independence Day in Kolkata, with an exhibition on 1857.
A Society Born in a Courtroom Need to Know
- Sir William Jones, a British judge and scholar, founded the Asiatick Society on 15 January 1784.
- Around 30 people attended the first meeting, in the Grand Jury Room of the Supreme Court at Fort William, Calcutta.
- The meeting was presided over by Justice Robert Chambers, not Jones himself.
- Its stated goal was to extend “Oriental research” to whatever was “performed by man or produced by nature,” across the geographical limits of Asia.
- From 1784 to 1828, only Europeans could become members. Indians, including Dwarakanath Tagore, were first admitted in 1829.
The Discourse That Rewrote Language History Need to Know
- On 2 February 1786, Jones delivered his Third Anniversary Discourse to the Society.
- He observed that Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin shared “a stronger affinity…than could possibly have been produced by accident.”
- He concluded that all three “had sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.”
- He also linked Gothic, Celtic, and Old Persian to the same family.
- This single observation is widely credited as the founding moment of comparative linguistics and the modern idea of an “Indo-European” language family.
Cracking Ashoka’s Code Good to Know
- The Society began publishing its own journal, Asiatick Researches, from 1788 onward.
- James Prinsep, the Society’s Secretary from 1832, spent years studying inscriptions found on ancient pillars and rocks across India.
- In 1837, Prinsep deciphered the ancient Brahmi script, publishing his findings in the Society’s own journal.
- This breakthrough revealed the phrase “Devanampiya Piyadasi,” identifying the edicts as belonging to Emperor Ashoka.
- In 1885, Rajendralal Mitra became the Society’s first Indian president.
Test Yourself
A Name That Kept Changing Great to Know
- The Society’s name has changed repeatedly: “The Asiatic Society” in 1825, “The Asiatic Society of Bengal” in 1832.
- It became the “Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal” in 1936, before reverting to simply “The Asiatic Society” in 1951, its current name.
- Its library today holds around 117,000 books, 79,000 journals, and 47,000 manuscripts, written across 26 different scripts.
- Its collection includes original Ashoka rock edicts, and manuscripts bearing Emperor Shah Jahan’s own signature.
- The Society moved to a custom-built structure on Park Street in 1808, where it still stands today.
Current Affairs
- On 15 August 2026, the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, celebrated India’s 80th Independence Day with flag-hoisting ceremonies, a garland-laying at the bust of Rishi Aurobindo, and the inauguration of an exhibition titled “1857: The First War of Independence” at its Heritage Building. (Source: PIB)
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