Proceedings of The Asiatic Society: 1784 - 1841 An Old and Rare Book (6 Books in Set of 4 Volumes)

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THE ASIATIC SOCIETY'S ROLE in the INDIAN RENAISSANCE in the 19th Century is manifested in the erection of its own building to house its Museum, Manuscript collection, publication of the Bibliotheca Indica series and its Transactions entitled the Asiatick Re- searches. This period (1801-1816) of the Society's History narrated in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, vol. II is of crucial importance to India and the adjacent countries. The convening of the first International Oriental Conference at Malacca and the Expedition to Java for the study of Indian cul- tural influence in the Asiatic archipelago raised the stature of the Society sky-high. The Society's scientific activities in min- ing, trigonometrical and ethnological surveys etc. laid the foundation of modern research in India. The international outlook of this 211-old national in- stitution is reflected on every page in the present volume.

P THANKAPPAN NAIR (b. 30.4.1933), hailed by the Press as the "bare-foot historian" and talkin', walkin', livin' encyclopaedia of Job Charnock's Mega City, has produced no less than 29 toms, out of which 20 are on CALCUTTA His recent 2-volume work on the Mango in Indian Life and Culture points out his penchant for Indology which is also evident from his earlier books like the National Bird, Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, Marriage etc. He has received exposure on the electronic and other media, at home and abroad, besides felicitation addresses and mementoes from several institutions of Calcutta, including the University of Burdwan, which conferred on him a D. Litt. He is a Research Professor of the Asiatic Society since 1989 and his forthcoming works on the history of the Society will fill up a lacuna of a Bicentenary History of this oldest learned body of modern India.

THE ASIATIC SOCIETY, the parent body of all humanistic and scientific Institutions in our country, will soon complete its full two hundred years of existence as the main centre of learning. On the eve of the celebration of its Bi-Centenary we are releasing the first volume of the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society covering the period 1784-1800 before the scholarly world. This was really the formative period of the Society. This volume, purely based on the minutes preserved in the Society, is the only authoritative account of the Proceedings of the Society. Sri Sibadas Chaudhuri, Librarian and Superintendent, Research Directorate, The Asiatic Society, has compiled and edited the volume with meticulous care. This volume may, however, be regarded as a supplement to Rajendralala Mitra's illuminating and informative work Centenary Review of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1784-1833), published by the Society in 1885, though the planning and subject matters of these two works are quite different New data and information incorporated in the present volume would help the scholars to get a clear idea about the role of those persons who were associated with the Society at its formative period as well as other aspects of the Society.

Sir William Jones's brilliant Addresses as President of the Society and the Papers and Communications by other scholars indicate their endeavours to promote the extension of knowledge in our country. At that time several European and Indian scholars came forward to assist Jones to add a connected link of Indian history. In course of time the terms Indology, Sinology, Islamic Studies, Semitica, Orientalia were coined as a natural corollary of Asian Studies built up by Jones. In one of his discourses at the Asiatic Society Jones observed: "We .shall concur, I trust, in my opinion, that the race of man, to advance whose manly happiness Is our duty and will of course be our endeavour, cannot long be happy without freedom, nor securely free without rational knowledge". It was Jones who at that time made concerted efforts to develop 'rational knowledge' in our country. Jones's design of 'tracing the origin and progress of the five principal nations' of Asia encouraged scholars to study 'Man and Nature' with a rational spirit.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages