The Asiatic Society
learned society founded by Sir William Jones in 1784
The Asiatic Society is a learned society under the Ministry of Culture, founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research" (in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions). It was founded by the philologist William Jones on 15 January 1784 in a meeting presided over by Justice Robert Chambers in 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
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.
The public source identifies “The Asiatic Society” as learned society founded by Sir William Jones in 1784. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Asiatic, Society and learned.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q374902. VIAF identifies the subject as 133359895. The Library of Congress control number is n80067000. Authority coordinates are 22.555, 88.351. 3 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1784, 1825, 1832 and 1936.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Asiatic Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.