by Wikipedia
Accessed: 12/10/19
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Not to be confused with Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Miscellaneous Presentations.
Proceedings of the Anjuman-i-Panjab. October to December 1880. Fep., Lahore, 1880.
-- PRESIDENT, ANJUMAN-I-PANJAB.
JONG, DR. P. DE. Al-Moschtabih, auctore Schamso’d-din Abu Abdallah Mohammed ibn Ahmed. 8 vo., Lugduni-Batavorum, 1881.
HOUTSMA, M. TH. Kitabo-‘l – Adhdad sive liber de vocabulis Arabic is quae plures habent significations inter se oppositas auctore Abu Bekr ibno-‘l-Anbari. 8vo., Lugduni-Batavorum, 1881.
-- M.J. DE GOEJE.
Report on the Cholera Epidemic of 1879 in Northern India, with special reference to the supposed influence of the Hurdwar Fair. Fep., Calcutta, 1880.
-- SANITARY COMMISSIONER WITH THE GOVT. OF INDIA.
BLANFORD, H.F. Report on the Administration of the Meteorological Department of the Government of India in 1879-80. Fep., Calcutta, 1880.
-- METEOROLOGICAL REPORTER TO THE GOVT. OF INDIA.
GORDON, R. Report on the Irrawaddy River, Parts I, II, III and IV. Fep., Rangoon, 1879.
-- PUBLIC WORKS DEPT., B. BURMAH.
Report on the Administration of the Panjab and its Dependencies for 1879-80. Royal 8vo., Lahore, 1880.
-- PUNJAB GOVERNMENT.
Report on Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency for 1877-78 and 1878-79. Royal 8vo., Madras, 1879.
-- MADRAS GOVERNMENT.
Report on the Administration of the Customs Department in the Bengal Presidency for the year 1879-80. Fep., Calcutta, 1880.
Report on Vaccination in the Province of Bengal for 1879-80. Fep., Calcutta, 1880.
Report on the Internal Trade of Bengal, for the year 1879-80. Fep., Calcutta, 1880.
Report on the Administration of Bengal, 1879-80. Royal 8vo., Calcutta, 1880.
Records of the Geological Survey of India – Vol. XIII, Part 4.
-- BENGAL GOVERNMENT
The Indian Antiquary, Vol. IX, Part 113, December 1880.
-- HOME, REVENUE AND AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.
--Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal [Feb. 1881], by Asiatic Society of Bengal
![Image](http://rapeutation.com/alangrosswikcia.2a.png)
The Asiatic Society
Established 1784
Location 1 Park Street
Kolkata – 700016
West Bengal, India
Type Library
President Isha Mohammad
Website asiaticsocietykolkata.org
![Image](http://rapeutation.com/alangrosswikcia.2b.png)
The Asiatic Society building. April 2013.
The Asiatic Society was founded by civil servant Sir William Jones on 15 January 1784 in a meeting presided over by Sir William Jones, Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William at the Fort William in Calcutta, then capital of the British Raj, to enhance and further the cause of Oriental research. At the time of its foundation, this Society was named as "Asiatick Society". In 1825, the society dropped the antique k without any formal resolution and the Society was renamed as "The Asiatic Society". In 1832 the name was changed to "The Asiatic Society of Bengal" and again in 1936 it was renamed as "The Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal". Finally, on 1 July 1951, the name of the society was changed to its present one. The Society is housed in a building at Park Street in Kolkata (Calcutta). The Society moved into this building during 1808. In 1823, the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta was formed and all the meetings of this society were held in the Asiatic Society.
History
In January 1784 Sir William Jones sent out a circular-letter to a selected number of British residents of Calcutta with a view to establish a society for the Asiatic studies. At his invitation, thirty British residents met in the Grand Jury Room of the Supreme Court (in Calcutta's Fort William) on 15 January 1784. The meeting was presided over by Sir Robert Chambers. At this meeting, Jones explained the aims of the Society he would establish. The Memorandum of Articles of the Asiatic Society, prepared by Jones said:[1]
The bounds of investigations will be the geographical limits of Asia, and within these limits its enquiries will be extended to whatever is performed by man or produced by nature.
Notable early members were Charles Wilkins and Alexander Hamilton (the cousin of the American statesman). Initially, the Grand Jury Room of the Supreme Court was used for the meetings of the members, who had to pay a quarterly fee of two mohurs. The members were elected through ballot-voting. On 29 September 1796 the Society decided to have its own building. J.H. Harrington, then Vice-President selected the corner of Park Street and Chowringhee Road (present location) for the Society's house. The site was granted to the society on 15 May 1805. The original plan for the new building was prepared by Captain Thomas Preston. The French architect, Jean-Jacques Pichou[2] made certain modifications to it and constructed a two storeyed building at the site. This 15,071 ft² building was built at a cost of Rs. 30,000.00. The first quarterly meeting of the Society for 1808 was held at its new building on 3 February 1808.[1]
From 1784 to 1828, only Europeans were elected members of the Society. In 1829, at the initiative of H.H. Wilson, a number of Indians were elected members, which include Dwarakanath Tagore, Sivchandra Das, Maharaja Baidyanath Roy, Maharaja Bunwari Govind Roy, Raja Kalikrishna Bahadur, Rajchunder Das, Ram Comul Sen and Prasanna Coomar Tagore. On 12 December 1832 Ram Comul Sen was elected 'Native Secretary'. Later, Rajendralal Mitra became the first Indian President in 1885.[1] Both the orientalist, Brajendranath De, and one of his grandsons, the historian, Barun De, were for sometime vice president of the Asiatic Society.[3][4][5]
Library
One of the main activities of the Asiatic Society was to collect the old manuscripts of India.[6] There was an enormous collection of Sanskrit manuscripts with the society. [6] At present], the library of the Asiatic Society has a collection of about 117,000 books and 79,000 journals printed in almost all the major languages of the world. It has also a collection of 293 maps, microfiche of 48,000 works, microfilm of 387,003 pages, 182 paintings, 2500 pamphlets and 2150 photographs. The earliest printed book preserved in this library is Juli Firmici's Astronomicorum Libri published in 1499.[1] It has in its possession a large number of books printed in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The library also possesses many rare and scarcely available books. The library has a rich collection of about 47,000 manuscripts in 26 scripts. The most notable amongst them are an illustrated manuscript of the Qur'an, a manuscript of the Gulistan text, and a manuscript of Padshah Nama bearing the signature of Emperor Shahjahan. The number of journals in the possession of the library is about 80,000 at present.
The early collection of this library was enriched by the contributions it received from its members. On 25 March 1784 the library received seven Persian manuscripts from Henri Richardson. The next contribution came from William Marsden, who donated his book, The History of Sumatra (1783) on 10 November 1784. Robert Home, the first Library-in-Charge (1804) donated his small but valuable collection of works on art. The first accession of importance was a gift from the Seringapatam Committee on 3 February 1808 consisting of a collection from the Palace Library of Tipu Sultan. The library received the Surveyor-General Colonel Mackenzie's collection of manuscripts and drawings in December 1822.
Since 1849, the Society has printed Bibliotheca Indica, a collection of rare and unpublished works belonging to or treating of Oriental literature and containing original text-editions as well as translations into English, and also grammars, dictionaries, bibliographies, and studies.
Museum
![Image](http://rapeutation.com/alangrosswikcia.2c.png)
The Bairat Minor Rock Edict of Ashoka (circa 250 BCE) is visible at the Asiatic Society. Image of the full display.
The museum of the Society was founded in 1814 under the superintendence of Nathaniel Wallich. The rapid growth of its collection is evident from its first catalogue, published in 1849. By 1849 the Society had its own museum consisting of inscriptions in stone and metal, icons, old coins and Sanskrit manuscripts etc. [6]
When the Indian Museum of Calcutta was established in 1814, the Society handed over most of its valuable collections to it. The Society however still has a museum of its own which possesses a rock edict of Asoka (c. 250 BCE) and a significant collection of copper plate inscriptions, coins, sculptures, manuscripts and archival records. Some masterpieces, like Joshua Reynolds’ Cupid asleep on Cloud, Guido Cagnacci's Cleopatra, Thomas Daniell's A Ghat at Benares and Peter Paul Rubens’ Infant Christ are also in the possession of this museum.
See also
• Asiatic Society of Bombay
• Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
• Francis Wilford
• List of Presidents of The Asiatic Society of Bengal
• Panchanan Mitra
• Société Asiatique
• South Asian Studies
Works
• Asiatic Society of Bengal (1832). Asiatic researches or transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal, for inquiring into the history and antiquities, the arts, sciences, and literature, of Asia, Volume 17. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
• Asiatick researches. 1832. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
• Asiatick Researches, Or, Transactions of the Society Instituted in Bengal, for Inquiring Into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia, Volume 17. Contributor Asiatick Society (Calcutta, India). Bengal Military Orphans Press. 1832. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
References
1. Chakrabarty, R. (2008). The Asiatic Society:1784-2008, An Overview in Time Past and Time Present: Two Hundred and Twenty-five Years of the Asiatic Society' Kolkata: The Asiatic Society, pp.2-24
2. Sometimes written Pichon (or Jean Jacques Pissaun)
3. "Birth Centenary of B.De Celebrated" in The Statesman, Wednesday, 24 December 1952
4. "He Rehabilitated Persian in Bengal: Tributes to Late B.De: Birthday Celebration" in Amrita Bazar Patrika, Wednesday, 24 December 1952
5. "Historian and Administrator" - Aniruddha Ray Retrieved 2015-03-03
6. Saraswati, H.D Swami Prakashanand. The True History and the Religion of India. International Society of Divine Love. pp. 297. ISBN 0-9673823-1-9.
Sources
• Mitra, S.K. (1974). The Asiatic Society, Calcutta: The Asiatic Society.
External links
• Official website
• "Asiatic Society", Banglapedia. On Line.
• "Asiatic Society of Bengal", Scholarly Societies Project.
• Scanned volumes of the Journal of the Asiatic Society
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The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal / Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal / Journal & Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
• Vol. I, Jan-Dec, 1832
• Vol. II, Jan-Dec, 1833
• Vol. III, Jan-Dec, 1834
• Vol. IV, Jan-Dec, 1835
• Vol. V. Jan-Dec, 1836
• Vol. VI, Jan-Dec, 1837
• Vol. VI, Part II, Jul-Dec, 1837
• Vol. VII, Jan-Dec, 1838
• Vol. VII, Part II, Jul-Dec, 1838
• New Series, Vol. VIII, Jan-Dec, 1839
• New Series, Vol. IX, Part I, Jan-Jun, 1840
• New Series, Vol. IX, Part II, Jul-Dec, 1840
• New Series, Vol. X, Part I, Jan-June, 1841
• New Series, Vol. X, Part II, Jul-Dec, 1841
• New Series, Vol. XI, Part I, Jan-Jun, 1842
• New Series, Vol. XI, Part II Jul-Dec, 1842
• New Series, Vol. XII, Part I, Jan-Jun, 1843
• New Series, Vol. XII, Part II, Jul-Dec, 1843
• New Series, Vol. XIII, Part I, Jan-Jun, 1844
• New Series, Vol. XIII, Part II, Jul-Dec, 1844
• New Series, Vol. XIV, Part I, Jan-Jun, 1845
• New Series, Vol. XIV, Part II, Jul-Dec, 1845
• Vol. XV, Jan 1846
• Vol. XV, Catalogue of Mammalia, 1846
• Vol. XVI, Part I, Jan-Jun, 1847
• Vol. XVI, Part II, Jul, 1847 (Catalogue of Reptiles)
• Vol. XVII, Part I, Jan-Jun, 1848
• Vol. XVII, Part II, Jul-Dec, 1848
• Vol. XVIII, Part I, Jan-Jun, 1849
• Vol. XVIII, Part II, Jul -Dec, 1849
• Vol. XIX, Nos. I to VII, 1850
• Vol. XX, Nos. I to VII, 1851
• Vol. XXI, Nos. I to VII, 1852
• Vol. XXII, Nos. I to VII, 1853
• Vol. XXIII, Nos. I to VII, 1854
• Vol. XXIV, Nos. I to VII, 1855
• Vol. XXV, Nos. I to VII, 1856
• Vol. XXVI, Nos. I to VI, 1857
• Vol. XXVII, Nos. I to V, 1858
• Vol. XXVIII, Nos. I to V, 1859
• Vol. XXIX, Nos. I to IV, 1860
• Vol. XXX, Nos. I to IV, 1861
• Vol. XXXI, Nos. I to V, 1862
• Vol. XXXII, Nos. I to IV and a Supplementary No., 1863
• Vol. XXXIII, Nos. I to V with a Supplementary No. and an Appendix, 1864
• Vol. XXXIV, Part I, Nos. I to IV, 1865
• Vol. XXXIV, Part II, Nos. I to IV, 1865
• Vol. XXXV, Part I, Nos. I to IV, 1866
• Vol. XXXV, Part II, Nos. I to III, 1866
• Vol. XXXVI, Part I, Nos. I to III, 1867
• Vol. XXXVII, Part I, History, Literature, &c., No. I, 1868
• Vol. XXXVII, Part I, Nos. I and II, 1868
• Vol. XXXVIII, Part I, Nos. I to IV, 1869
• Vol. XXXIX, Part I, Nos. I to IV, 1870
• Vol. XL, Part I (History, Literature, &c), Nos. I to III, 1871
• Vol. XL, Part II (Natural History, &c) Nos. I to IV, 1871
• Vol. XLI, Part I (History, Literature, &c., Nos. I to IV, 1872
• Vol. XLI, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1872
• Vol. XLII, Part I (History, Literature, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1873
• Vol. XLII, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1873
• Vol. XLIII, Part I (History, Literature, &c.) Nos. I to IV, 1874
• Vol. XLIII, Part II (Natural History, &c.) Nos. I to IV, 1874
• Vol. XLIV, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.) Nos. I to IV, 1875
• Vol. XLIV, Part II (Natural History &c.) Nos. I to II, 1875
• Vol. XLV, Part II, Extra No., (Catalogue of Mammals and Birds of Burma), 1875
• Vol. XLV, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to III, 1876
• Vol. XLV, Part II (Natural History, &c.) Nos. I to IV, 1876
• Vol. XLVI, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1877
• Vol. XLVI, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1877
• Vol. XLVII, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1878
• Vol. XLVII, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1878
• Vol. XLVIII, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, with 19 Plates and 2 Maps, 1879
• Vol. XLIX, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1880
• Vol. L, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1881
• Vol. L, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1881
• Vol. LI, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, with 16 Plates, 1882
• Vol. LI, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1882
• Vol. LII, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1883
• Vol. LII, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to II, 1883
• Vol. LIII, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I and II, with six Plates and a Map; and with a Special Number as substitute for Nos. III and IV, 1884
• Vol. LIII, Part II (Natural Science), Nos. I to IV, with 14 plates, 1884
• Vol. LIV, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, with 7 plates, 1885
• Vol. LIV, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to III, 1885
• Vol. LV, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to III, with 9 plates, 1886
• Vol. LV, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to V, 1886
• Vol. LVI, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to III, with 10 plates, 1887
• Vol. LVI, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to V, 1887
• Vol. LVII, Part I (History, Literature, &c.), Nos. I and II with eleven plates, and an Extra Number with 3 plates, 1888
• Vol. LVII, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to V, 1888
• Vol. LVIII, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to III, with 10 plates; also a Supplement with 2 plates, 1889
• Vol. LVIII, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to V, 1889
• Vol. LIX, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to __, 9 plates, 1890
• Vol. LIX, Part I (History, Literature, &c.), No. II, 1890
• Vol. LIX, Part II (Natural Science), No. I, 1890
• Vol. LIX, Part II, Supplement No. I, 1890
• Vol. LX, Part I, (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to III, 1891
• Vol. LX, Part II, (Natural Science), No. I, 1891
• Vol. LX, Part II, No. II, 1891
• Vol. LXI, Part I, (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, with 11 Plates; and an Extra number with 30 Plates, 1892
• Vol. LXI, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to II, 1892
• Vol. LXI, Part II, (Natural Science), No. II, 1892
• Vol. LXII, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1893
• Vol. LXII, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to IV, with Index, 1893
• Vol. LXIII, Part I, (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, with 6 Plates, 1894
• Vol. LXIII, Part II, (Natural Science), No. I, 1894
• Vol. LXIV, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, with 29 Plates, 1895
• Vol. LXIV, Part II, No. 2, 1895 (Incomplete)
• Vol. LXV, Part I (History, Antiquities, &c.), Nos. I to IV, with 18 Plates, 1896
• Vol. LXV, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I to IV, 1896
• 1912
• Vol. LXX, Part I (History, Antiquities, & c), Nos. I and II, and Extra Nos. I and II, 1901
• Vol. LXX, Part II (Natural History, &c.), Nos. I and II, 1901
Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
• Vol. III, No. 9, pp. 513-704 (Jesuit Letters and Allied Papers on Mogor, Tibet, Bengal and Burma)
Indexes to the Society's Journal and Proceedings
• Vol. I, 1905
• Vol. V, 1909
Asiatic Researches
• Volume 1, 1788
• Volume 2, 1788
• Volume 3, 1792
• Volume 4, 1795
• Volume 5, 1799
• Volume 6, 1801
• Volume 7, 1808
• Volume 8, 1808
• Volume 9, 1809
• Volume 10, 1811
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Madras Literary Society
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/9/21
The Madras Literary Society is a learned society in Chennai (earlier called Madras), India which was founded in 1817[1] and in 1830 it became associated with the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. It was founded by Sir John Henry Newbolt, Chief Justice of Madras ...
Sir John Henry Newbolt (1769 - 22 January 1823) was an English judge who served as Chief Justice of Madras and was founder of the Madras Literary Society. He was Member of Parliament for Bramber for 1800–02.
Biography
Born at Winchester, John was the first son of Reverend John Monk Newbolt and his wife Susanna. He studied at Winchester and at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1791. He studied law at All Souls College, Oxford and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1795.
He worked for a while at the Chancery as a Secretary and then as a Commissioner of Bankruptcy (1796-1811). In 1794 he married the Elizabeth Juliana Digby, daughter of the Dean of Durham, and they had three sons and a daughter. In 1800 he obtained with the help of Lord Canning, a fellow alumnus of Christ Church, a Parliamentary seat at Bramber which he held until 1802.
In 1809, his wife died and he obtained a posting in India in 1810 as a puisne judge in Madras through the influence of Lord Canning. He married Henrietta Blenkinsop in 1810 in Madras and they had one son and two daughters. He was knighted on 17 April 1810 and made Recorder of Bombay for 1811–12. In 1815 he succeeded Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange as Chief Justice of Madras and in 1817 he founded the Madras Literary Society.
-- John Henry Newbolt, by Wikipedia
with Benjamin Guy Babington as the founder secretary.
Benjamin Guy Babington (5 March 1794 – 8 April 1866) was an English physician and epidemiologist.
Life
He was born on 5 March 1794, the son of the physician and mineralogist William Babington (1756–1833) and his wife, Martha Elizabeth (née Hough) Babington.
After serving as a midshipman and studying at Charterhouse School from 1803 to 1807 and then the East India Company College at Haileybury until 1812, he worked in government at Madras, India. Returning to England, he studied medicine at Guy's Hospital and Cambridge, receiving his doctorate in 1831. He then became Assistant Physician at Guy's but resigned after a disagreement in 1855. During his career, he invented several medical instruments (including the first laryngoscope) and techniques. He performed the first laryngoscopy with his glottiscope in 1829. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. According to Henry Morley, he also "distinguished himself by inquiries into the cholera epidemic in 1832".
He was Secretary to The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and in March, 1828 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1834–1836 he was President of the Hunterian Society [founded in 1819 in honour of the Scottish surgeon John Hunter (1728–1793), a society of physicians and dentists based in London.]. He was a censor and Croonian Lecturer (1841) at the Royal College of Physicians. In 1850 he was elected the founding President of the Epidemiological Society of London and served in that capacity to within months of his death. At least one authority refers to the founding as the beginning of modern epidemiology. In 1853–1855 he was president of the Pathological Society of London and 1863 was also president of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society....
He also became a director of B. Fayle and Co. (Merchants) together with his sister-in-law (Charlotte Fayle) and his brother-in-law (Rev. Richard Fayle). Benjamin Guy Babington's son - Stephen Piele Babington also became a director of B.Fayle & Co.
-- Benjamin Guy Babington, by Wikipedia
The Society produced a journal called the Transactions of the Literary Society of Madras and from 1833 under the name of [Madras] Journal of Literature and Science. Most of the early members were Europeans and the first Indian to be admitted was Kavali Lakshmayya [Lechmiah] who worked with Colin Mackenzie.
Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB (1754–8 May 1821) was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India, making use of local interpreters and scholars to study religion, oral histories, inscriptions and other evidence, initially out of personal interest, and later as a surveyor. He was ordered to survey the Mysore region shortly after the British victory over Tipu Sultan in 1799 and produced the first maps of the region along with illustrations of the landscape and notes on archaeological landmarks. His collections consisting of thousands of manuscripts, inscriptions, translations, coins and paintings, which were acquired after his death by the India Office Library and are an important source for the study of Indian history. He was awarded a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 4 June 1815....
Lord Kenneth Mackenzie (last Earl of Seaforth) and Francis (fifth Lord Napier) sought his help in preparing a biography of John Napier and his work on logarithms.John Napier of Merchiston (/ˈneɪpɪər/;[1] 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. His Latinized name was Ioannes Neper.
John Napier is best known as the discoverer of logarithms. He also invented the so-called "Napier's bones" and made common the use of the decimal point in arithmetic and mathematics....
Napier's father was Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston Castle, and his mother was Janet Bothwell, daughter of the politician and judge Francis Bothwell, and a sister of Adam Bothwell who became the Bishop of Orkney. Archibald Napier was 16 years old when John Napier was born...
It is not known which university Napier attended in Europe, but when he returned to Scotland in 1571 he was fluent in Greek, a language that was not commonly taught in European universities at the time....
In 1571, Napier, aged 21, returned to Scotland, and bought a castle at Gartness in 1574. On the death of his father in 1608, Napier and his family moved into Merchiston Castle in Edinburgh, where he resided the remainder of his life. He had a property within Edinburgh city as well on Borthwick's Close off the Royal Mile.
On 7 June 1596 Napier wrote a paper Secret inventions, profitable and necessary in these days for defence of this island. He describes two kinds of burning mirror for use against ships at a distance, a special kind of artillery shot, and a musket-proof metal chariot....
Theology
Napier had an interest in the Book of Revelation, from his student days at St Salvator's College, St Andrews. Under the influence of the sermons of Christopher Goodman, he developed a strongly anti-papal reading, going as far as to say that the Pope was the Antichrist in some of his writings.
Napier regarded A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John (1593) as his most important work. It was written in English, unlike his other publications, in order to reach the widest audience and so that, according to Napier, "the simple of this island may be instructed". A Plaine Discovery used mathematical analysis of the Book of Revelation to attempt to predict the date of the Apocalypse. Napier identified events in chronological order which he believed were parallels to events described in the Book of Revelation believing that Revelation's structure implied that the prophecies would be fulfilled incrementally. In this work Napier dated the seventh trumpet to 1541, and predicted the end of the world would occur in either 1688 or 1700. Napier did not believe that people could know the true date of the Apocalypse, but claimed that since the Bible contained so many clues about the end, God wanted the Church to know when the end was coming.
In his dedication of the Plaine Discovery to James VI, dated 29 Jan 1594, Napier urged the king to see "that justice be done against the enemies of God's church," and counselled the King "to reform the universal enormities of his country, and first to begin at his own house, family, and court." The volume includes nine pages of Napier's English verse. It met with success at home and abroad.... Among Napier's followers was Matthew Cotterius (Matthieu Cottière).
The occult
In addition to his mathematical and religious interests, Napier was often perceived as a magician, and is thought to have dabbled in alchemy and necromancy. It was said that he would travel about with a black spider in a small box, and that his black rooster was his familiar spirit.
Some of Napier's neighbors accused him of being a sorcerer and in league with the devil, believing that all of the time he spent in his study was being used to learn the black art. These rumors were stoked when Napier used his black rooster to catch a thief. Napier told his servants to go into a darkened room and pet the rooster, claiming the bird would crow if they were the one who stole his property. Unknown to the servants, Napier had covered the rooster with soot. When the servants emerged from the room, Napier inspected their hands to find the one who had been too afraid to touch the rooster.
Another act which Napier is reported to have done, which may have seemed mystical to the locals, was when Napier removed the pigeons from his estate, since they were eating his grain. Napier caught the pigeons by strewing grain laced with alcohol throughout the field, and then capturing the pigeons once they were too drunk to fly away....
Family
In 1572, Napier married 16-year-old Elizabeth, daughter of James Stirling, the 4th Laird of Keir and of Cadder. They had two children. Elizabeth died in 1579, and Napier then married Agnes Chisholm, with whom he had ten more children.
Napier's father-in-law, Sir James Chisholm of Cromlix, was one of many excommunicated by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian party following the Spanish blanks plot. Napier sat on the General Assembly that excommunicated the plotters, and petitioned the King James VI and I to enforce the punishment on the plotters, but was ultimately ignored since the King believed the ministers were acting cruelly, and was in favor of pursuing policies of more appeasement.
His half-brother (through his father's remarriage) was Alexander Napier, Lord Laurieston.
-- Alexander Napier, Lord Laurieston, by Wikipedia
When Lord Napier died in 1773, Kenneth Mackenzie helped Colin to obtain commission with the British East India Company to join the Madras Army. When he arrived in Madras on 2 September 1783 he was thirty and was never to return home again. He joined as a Cadet in the Infantry division but was transferred in 1786 as a Cadet of Engineers.
India
Arriving in India he first met the daughter of Lord Francis Napier, Hester (d. 1819). Hester was married to Samuel Johnston who worked as a civil servant at Madurai (their son Alexander Johnston later became a judge in Sri Lanka, founded the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and wrote a memoir on the life of Colin Mackenzie). Hester introduced Mackenzie to some Brahmins to obtain information on Hindu mathematical traditions as part of the biographical memoir on John Napier and the history of logarithms. The biography project appears to have been subsequently dropped but Colin continued to take an interest in antiquities.
For the first thirteen years in India, he was busy with military duties. He began in Coimbatore and Dindigul around 1783 followed by engineering duties in Madras, Nellore and Guntur and during the campaign against Mysore from 1790 to 1792. In 1793 he saw action in the Siege of Pondicherry. He was posted as a commanding engineer to Ceylon and returned in 1796. He rose in rank starting from a second lieutenant on 16 May 1783, first lieutenant on 6 March 1789; and captain 16 August 1793. Major by 1 Jan 1806 rising on to become a colonel on 12 August 1819. It was after his return from Ceylon that he was able to follow his interest in antiquities.
Mysore survey
In 1799, Mackenzie was part of the British force in the Battle of Seringapatam, where Tipu Sultan, Maharaja of Mysore was defeated. After the defeat of Tipu, he led the Mysore survey between 1799 and 1810 and one of the aims was to establish the boundaries of the state as well as the territories ceded by the Nizam. The survey consisted of interpreters, a team of draftsmen and illustrators who collected material on the natural history, geography, architecture, history, customs, and folk tales of the region....One of his chief interpreters was a man named Kavelli Venkata Boria (IAST kāvelī veṃkeṭā boraiyāḥ, there are variations in spelling) who Mackenzie first met in 1796, shortly after his return from Ceylon. He found Boria capable of dealing with all sects and considered him as "the first step of my introduction into the portal of Indian knowledge." Boria knew Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Sankskrit. In 1797, Mackenzie visited Mudgeri and found the ruins of a Jain temple. He wrote an extensive note on the Jains based on interviews through his translator "Cavelly Boria". Boria died in 1803 and Mackenzie took in his brother Venkata Lechmiah (IAST lakṣmaiyyā, also spelt Lakshmaiah or Lakshmayya). Another of Mackenzie's assistant was Dhurmiah (IAST dharmayāḥ), a Jain pandit (scholar) from Maleyur, then in Mysore State. Dhurmiah, with his ability to read Hale Kannada (old Kannada) inscriptions contributed greatly to the study of the inscriptions in the region. Dhurmiah provided Mackenzie with Jain insights into the history of India but some ideas were considered too unreliable such as the idea that the Jains had fled from Mecca. Dhurmiah's son may also have been on Mackenzie's staff. Another orientalist, Mark Wilks interviewed Dhurmiah and wrote on the Jains in his 1817 Historical Sketches of the South of India.
Stating the aims of his survey, he wrote from the perspective of a historian in a letter to Major Merwick Shawe in 1805:The elucidation of the History of the several Governments that have rapidly succeeded in this Stage will I conceived be very interesting, as by the Inscriptions, Grants & other Documents that came into my hands, a regular Progress is traced up to the first Mahomedan invasion in the 13th Century & even beyond it to the 8th but more obscurely; & in several instances still further, these consist not merely of a dry Chain of uninteresting facts but are connected by various illustrations of the genious & manner of the People, their Several Systems of Government & of Religion, & of the predominant causes that influence their Sentiments & opinions to this day; lights are derived on the Tenures of lands, the origin & variety of the several classes, and the genius and Spirit of the Government prevalent generally in the South for centuries from Several Documents illustrating claims & pretension not foreign to modern discussions; ... confirming the utility of this undertaking to the existing Government from a knowledge of Institutions that influence so considerable a part of the Population of the Empire.
Amaravati
Among Mackenzie's vast collection of illustrations is a set of 85 sketches made at Amaravati. He appears to have first visited the site in 1798 and conducted more systematic studies between 1816 and 1820 after he became a Surveyor General and three copies of these documents were made. One was deposited at the Library of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, another at Madras and one in the British Library at London. Only the London copy survives. Sketches of the site were made by John Newman, draftsman for Mackenzie from 1810 to 1818. About 132 stones were found by Mackenzie but these are no longer traceable. Mackenzie believed that the site was related to the Jain religion and had no idea of Buddhism in India. The stones from Amaravati were brought to Masulipatam but many were not taken to ship but deposited into a mound that came to be known as "Robertson's Mound" after Francis W. Robertson who was Assistant Collector at Masulipatnam from 1814 to 1817. Most of these were subsequently moved to the Madras Museum along with Sir Walter Elliot's collections from Amaravati. About 79 stones depicted in the Mackenzie drawings are unaccounted for and are not traceable to collections in museums....
Surveyor General of India
In 1757, the East India Company under Lord Clive had appointed James Rennell as Surveyor General for Bengal. Colin Mackenzie was appointed Surveyor General of Madras Presidency in 1810 but these posts were abolished in 1815. After his returning to India, in June 1815, he was invested as a Companion of the Bath. He returned to continue surveys of eastern India from the Krishna to Cape Comorin. On 26 May 1815 he was appointed Surveyor General of India with his headquarters at Fort William in Calcutta but he was allowed to stay on in Madras to help reorganize the surveys. He stayed there till May 1817 during which period he worked on planning surveys and examining earlier surveys. ...
Much of his collection of documents, manuscripts, artifacts, and artworks is now in the British Museum and the Oriental and India Office Collections of the British Library, though part of it remains in the Government Museum in Madras. Samuel and Hester Johnston's son, Sir Alexander Johnston, wrote a memoir on the life of Colin Mackenzie....
After Mackenzie's death, Lechmiah continued to help Horace Hayman Wilson in cataloguing the collections. He applied to the Madras division of the Asiatic Society to continue work on the collections made by his master. This was rejected on the grounds that no oriental could handle the managerial and critical work. James Prinsep declared that "..The qualifications of Cavelly Venkata for such an office, judging of them by his 'abstract,' or indeed of any native, could hardly be pronounced equal to such a task...". Lechmiah was the only Indian admitted to the Madras Literary Society which was founded in 1817 and in 1833, Lechmiah founded a parallel Madras Hindu Literary Society as a means of continuing his work. Sir Alexander Johnston supported this venture which also got the support of Captain Henry Harkness (author of a book on Indian scripts) and George Norton (a radical Advocate-General who was against government support for Christian missionaries support for but this organization did not survive long. A missionary in Madras, William Taylor was chosen for the job. Taylor has been described as a poor scholar (with a defective knowledge of the Devanagari script) if not a deranged antiquarian by Dirks (1993). Lechmiah received a monthly pension of 300 rupees and was given a grant of a Shotrium (or Shrotrium), land given as a reward for Civil officers. Three other brothers Ramaswamie, Narasimhalu (Naraseemoloo) and Sitayya (Seetiah) also worked for Mackenzie but the latter two were mainly as minor assistants. Ramaswamie later published extensively in English. His works included a book on the cities of the Deccan (Descriptive and Historical Sketches of Cities and Places in the Dekkan...), a biography of Deccan poets (1829), a cookbook translated in 1836 from a Telugu book written by Saraswati Bai (Pakasastra, otherwise Called Soopasastra, or the Modern Culinary Receipts of the Hindoos), a book on caste in 1837.
Studies of the maps made by Mackenzie's survey are considered to have the potential to highlight interesting archaeological sites as well as provide information on the organization and structure of poligar chiefdoms which were dismantled after British takeover.
-- Colin Mackenzie, by Wikipedia
The journal ceased publication in 1894. The journal published extensive researches on geology, meteorology, fauna, flora, culture and history.[3] Some of the major contributors to the journal included Thomas C. Jerdon and Walter Elliot. The library run by the society in a red sandstone building in the Department of Public Instruction complex in Nungambakkam is the oldest functional public library in the city and one of the oldest in India. The Government Museum, Chennai started as an extension of the Madras Literary Society library in Nungambakkam before moving to the present premises in Pantheon Road, Egmore. In 1890, a major part of the library's book collection was moved to a new building in the same premises as the museum to form the Connemara Public Library. The main library continues to exist in the premises of the DPI albeit in a dilapidated state.
See also
• Asiatic Society
• Delhi Archaeological Society
References
1. Srinivasachari, C.S. (1839). History of the City of Madras. Madras: P. Varadachary & Co. p. 216.
2. Wagoner, Phillip B. (2003). "Precolonial Intellectuals and the Production of Colonial Knowledge". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 45 (04): 783–814. doi:10.1017/S0010417503000355.
3. Anon. (1828). "Review-Transactions of the Literary Society of Madras". The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies. 26: 332–333.
External links
• Madras Journal of Literature and Science
• Sridhar, Asha (October 4, 2011). "Survivors of time: Pages from the past". The Hindu.
• Lalitha, J. (17 October 2014). "At home with books". The Hindu.