Who was the founder of the 'Asiatic Society of Bengal'?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, Sir William Jones. The Asiatic Society (of Bengal) was founded on 15 January 1784 at Calcutta by the philologist and judge Sir William Jones, to promote enquiry into the history, antiquities, languages, arts and sciences of Asia. Jones served as its first president, and the Society became the fountainhead of modern Indology and Orientalist scholarship.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Wrong — Jonathan Duncan founded the Sanskrit College at Benares (1791) and served as Resident there and later Governor of Bombay; he did not found the Asiatic Society.  (c) Wrong — Warren Hastings, then Governor-General, was the Society's patron and a great encourager of Orientalist learning, but he declined its presidency; William Jones founded it and became first president.  (d) Wrong — Lord William Bentinck came to India as Governor-General only in 1828 (known for abolishing Sati); he had no role in the Society's 1784 founding, which predates him.

Concept: The Asiatic Society of Bengal (1784) was the first modern learned society devoted to systematic study of India's and Asia's past. Founded by Sir William Jones with the patronage of Governor-General Warren Hastings, it launched the discipline of Indology — collecting manuscripts, translating Sanskrit and Persian texts, and studying Indian history, law and languages. Jones himself famously argued the common ancestry of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin (the Indo-European family).

State PCS 2021 Q95 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q95 — History PYQ with Answer