SIR WILLIAM JONES (1746 - 1794)

  Born and brought up in an intellectual environment, W.jones studied at Oxford. He was a  multi-linuist well-versed in Hebrew,Greek,Latin and Arabic. He studied comparative law.

    He distinguished himself as an orientalist by outlining a well thought out comprehensive plan of Oriental research including Indian plans, medicine and mathematics.

   W.Jones inaugurated,what may be described as the orientalist Movement through the following remarkable achievements:

1) Patronised by the Governor – General warren Hastings (1772 - 1785), himself an arch orientalist,Jones founded the Asiatic society of Bengal in 1784.It served as the fulcrum of indological research. His translation of Bhagavad Gita, Shakuntala, Gita Govinda and Manusmrti into English ignited the imagination of the intellects of Europe.

2) Jones propounded a theory of the Golden Age of India’s remote past in his annual discourses delivered before the Asiatic Society.

3) He announced that Sanskrit,Persian,Greek,Latin,English and other modern languages of Europe beloenged to the Aryan race.

4) He convincingly established the date of the accession of Chandragupta Maurya to the throne of pataliputra,thereby confirming for the first time a firm historical date,325 B.C. It is a revolutionary break through in the otherwise chaotic chronology of Indian history. Jone’s discoveries startled and rattled the world of scholarship.