Royal Asiatic Society

Royal Asiatic Society
Name	Royal Asiatic Society
Formation	1823
Headquarters	London
Leader title	President

Royal Asiatic Society is a learned society founded in 1823 in London dedicated to the study of Asia, its languages, literatures, histories, religions and antiquities. From its establishment the Society has been associated with explorers, diplomats, scholars and colonial administrators who pursued research on South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The Society shaped scholarly networks linking figures connected to the British Museum, the East India Company, the India Office, and universities such as Oxford and Cambridge.

History

The founding drew together patrons and scholars connected to Lord Amherst, Sir Stamford Raffles, Thomas Stamford Raffles, William Henry Sykes, John Crawfurd and Charles Wilkins with antecedents in the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries of London. Early activities intersected with projects led by the British Museum, the India Office, the East India Company, and the British Library. The Society commissioned or published work related to expeditions like those of Alexander Burnes, James Prinsep, Francis Rawdon Chesney and William Moorcroft, and engaged with scholarship by Max Müller, James Legge, Hermann Jacobi and Edward Byles Cowell. Debates within the Society reflected imperial policies shaped during the tenure of figures such as Lord Palmerston and encounters with events like the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Opium Wars. The Society’s publication program paralleled collections gathered by collectors such as Horace Hayman Wilson, Sir William Jones, Henry Cole and Sir Charles R. Markham.

Structure and Governance

The Society’s governance has historically involved presidents, secretaries and council members drawn from institutions including University of London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, School of Oriental and African Studies, Trinity College, Cambridge and the British Academy. Presidents and officers have included eminent persons associated with East India Company, diplomats posted to Peking and Calcutta, and scholars who taught at King's College London and University College London. Governance models mirrored learned bodies like the Society of Antiquaries of London and liaised with national archives such as the Public Record Office and the India Office Records. Funding and patronage historically derived from aristocrats, colonial administrators, and institutions like the Royal Geographical Society and private benefactors linked to families such as the Earl of Hardwicke and Marquess of Hastings.

Activities and Publications

The Society organizes lectures, symposia and conferences featuring scholarship on topics addressed by editors and contributors associated with journals published by the Society and comparable to titles in the catalogues of the British Library, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Contributors have included scholars connected to Sanskrit Text Society, translators of Buddhist and Hindu texts such as Ananda Coomaraswamy, A. K. Warder, Arthur Waley and Herbert V. Guenther, and historians of China like Joseph Needham, Lionel Giles and W. W. Rockhill. The Society published research on inscriptions and manuscripts comparable to work by James Francklin, Augustus Hoernle, Morton Wright, and editions aligning with the catalogs of Bibliothèque nationale de France and Vatican Library. Conferences have engaged researchers from universities including School of Oriental and African Studies, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Princeton University, Yale University and University of Tokyo.

Collections and Library

The Society’s library and collections historically complemented holdings at the British Museum, British Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum and university libraries. Its manuscript collections include material in Sanskrit, Pali, Persian, Arabic, Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Burmese scripts, paralleling holdings in the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library and the Berlin State Library. Objects and prints relate to material documented by explorers such as Thomas Baines, John Hancock (collector), Mary Henrietta Kingsley and Arthur de Carle Sowerby. Cataloguing efforts referenced standards used by the International Dunhuang Project, the Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts and repositories like the National Archives (UK). The library has provided resources for study connected to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (branch) and counterparts in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Kolkata.

Notable Fellows and Contributors

Fellows and contributors have comprised explorers, philologists, epigraphists and diplomats such as Sir William Jones, James Prinsep, Max Müller, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Sten Konow, Hermann Ethé, E. H. Parker, G. W. Leitner, John Faithfull Fleet, George Grierson, Sylvain Lévi, R. C. Childers, T. W. Rhys Davids, Nicholas Sims-Williams, Stuart Blackburn, Joseph Needham, Arthur Waley, Edward Said and Richard Eaton. Contributors also included officers and scholars associated with Fort William College, the Asiatic Society (Calcutta), the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Royal Holloway, and museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and British Museum.

Regional and International Branches

The Society’s influence extended to regional and international counterparts and branches including the Asiatic Society (Calcutta), Asiatic Society of Bombay, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society North China Branch, and societies linked to cities such as Shanghai, Singapore, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, Dhaka, Rangoon and Kathmandu. Collaborations have involved institutions like the National University of Singapore, University of Malaya, Bangladesh National Museum, National Museum of Sri Lanka, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the École française d'Extrême-Orient.

Category:Learned societies