CHAPTEE I. 
INTRODUCTION. 
0 APPRECIATE the history of the origin and 
growth of the Indian Museum, we must travel 
back to the last quarter of the eighteenth century, 
when, after the establishment of British supre¬ 
macy in this Province, Sir William Jones, one of 
the profoundest scholars, who have devoted their 
life to the service of India, founded the Asiatic Society in 
1784, and with the boldness which characterized his genius, 
stated that the bounds of its investigations would be the geo¬ 
graphical limits of Asia, and that within these limits, its en¬ 
quiries would be extended to whatever is performed by Man 
or produced by Nature. Sir William Jones, however, in his 
inaugural address did not expressly refer to the foundation of 
a Museum as part of the activities of the Society, which, at 
the time and for many years afterwards, had no habitation 
of its own. But curiosities sent in, from time to time, by 
members, began to accumulate, and in 1796 the idea w^as 
started that a suitable house should be erected for their 
reception and preservation. Donations were invited, but the 
plan proved premature, and it was not till the beginning of 
1808 that the Society found itself in a position to occupy the 
i The History of the Indian Museum : An inaugural address delivered 
by the Hon. Justice Sir Asutosh Mookerjee, Kt., C.S.I., LL.D., D.Sc., 
Chairman of the Trustees, on November 28th, 1913, in the Museum 
Lecture Hall. 
