JONES, William (contrib.).

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Asiatick Researches: Or, Transactions of the Society, Instituted in Bengal, First edition of the opening volume of this famous journal, including the text of Jones's third anniversary discourse, "On the Hindus", which marked "a turning-point in the history of linguistics" (PMM). Delivered on 2 February 1786, the address shared news of his recent discoveries concerning the relationship between Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Gothic languages. Spearheaded by Jones, its first president, the Asiatick Society of Bengal was one of the first European orientalist societies and offered "a vast sphere of intellectual and imaginative space exceeding that available in London" (ODNB). In his first address to the society, give in Calcutta in January 1784 and printed at the head of this volume, Jones extolled "laying the foundation of a Society for enquiring into the history and antiquities, the natural productions, arts, sciences, and literature of Asia... An institution so likely to afford entertainment and convey knowledge to mankind, will advance to maturity... as the Royal Society, which at first was only a meeting of a few literary friends at Oxford, rose gradually to that splendid zenith, at which a Halley was their Secretary, and a Newton their President" (p. x).Among those present at the founding meeting was Charles Wilkins, the first translator of the Bhagavad Gita into English, while the pioneering Sanskrit scholar Alexander Hamilton was an early member. "It was Jones's European repu

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