Founded in 1784 by Sir William Jones.
Description
Founded in 1784 by Sir William Jones. Oriental manuscripts, natural history collections, philology, antiquities, and the journal Asiatick Researches. Its museum was founded this very year, 1814, and is still boxes and half-built cases.
It is one of the very few institutions in Calcutta where European and Indian scholars sit in the same room as intellectual equals, which makes it socially unusual and strategically valuable.
Notable Features
- The manuscript collection. Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and Bengali, much of it uncatalogued.
- The rejected-matter file. Papers submitted, set in type, and withdrawn or refused. Nobody throws anything away.
- Membership is by introduction. A letter, a sponsor, or plain scholarly credibility. Georgiana’s standing is the party’s natural route in.
- Roy’s published tracts are findable in any well-stocked reformist collection, including this one.
The Senses
- Smell. Camphor against insects, old paper, floor polish, and lamp oil.
- Sound. A punkah, a pen, and the particular silence of a room where interrupting is a social offence.
- Colour. Dark mahogany cases, gilt lettering, cream paper, and one wall of specimen jars catching whatever light there is.