Q136
Indian National MovementPress, Literature & Cultural Institutions
Who was the Governor-General of Bengal when the Asiatic Society was founded?
- a.Warren Hastings
- b.Lord Cornwallis
- c.Lord Wellesley
- d.Lord Clive
Answer: (A) Warren Hastings
The Asiatic Society was founded in Calcutta on 15 January 1784 by Sir William Jones, a judge of the Supreme Court, when Warren Hastings was Governor-General of Bengal (1774-85, the first to hold that title under the Regulating Act, 1773); Hastings declined the presidency and became its patron. Its scholars include Charles Wilkins (first English translation of the Bhagavad Gita, 1785), Jones himself (Abhijnanasakuntalam, 1789) and James Prinsep, who deciphered Brahmi in 1837. Other institutions and their periods: Calcutta Madrasa, 1781 (Hastings); Sanskrit College, Benares, 1791 (Jonathan Duncan, under Cornwallis); Fort William College, 1800 (Wellesley). Clive (D) was Governor of Bengal, never Governor-General.