ABSTRACT
206 Most notable was his [Hastings’s] encouragement and support of Sir William Jones (1746–1794), a judge of the Supreme Court in the latter’s foundation of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (later the Bengal Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which itself was established in 1823), whose chief aim was to promote and publish research in Sanskrit. Jones had learned Arabic and Persian while at Harrow, and he would know Hebrew and Greek before coming to India. He was also a talented jurist and came to India in that capacity to be a judge. Master of many languages, he now studied Sanskrit. In his first address to the society, he showered praise on Sanskrit, which he lauded for its “wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either.” (page 226)
