Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1823-1950 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 archival folder, handwritten and typed
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke on the 15th March 1823. It received its Royal Charter from King George IV on the 11th August 1824 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. It continues as a forum for those who are interested in the languages, cultures and history of Asia to meet and exchange ideas.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Henry Beveridge was born on 9th February 1837. He completed his education at Glasgow University and Queen's College, Belfast, before applying for the Indian Civil Service and he was posted to Bengal in 1857, serving in various posts until 1893. He married Annette Susanna Ackroyd, a graduate of Bedford College and translator of Persian and Turki text. Beveridge, himself, had many publications including The District of Bakarganj, The Trials of maharaja Nanda Kumar: A Narrative of a Judicial Murder and he was the editor for Alexander Rogers' TheThe Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī, or, Memoirs of Jahāngīr. They had two children, Annette Jeanie (d. 1956), and a son, William Beveridge (1879–1963), a noted economist who gave his name to the report associated with the foundation of the welfare state. Beveridge retired with his wife to England in 1893 but continued to be interested in Moghul history including returning to India in 1899 to search for historical manuscripts. He died on 8th November 1929.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Information collated about the collections from the early history of the Society:
- Information concerning RAS Persian Manuscript 258 Gulistan of Sa'di. Handwritten and typed, 3 pieces, undated.
- 'Memo' - index of contents of an unknown [Thai] manuscript or book about Buddhism and the Siam court. Handwritten, 1 piece, undated.
- '[Kalunelle Wieharre]' - a list of manuscripts or index for a manuscript concerning Buddhism including some of the jatakas. Handwritten, 1 piece, undated.
- 'No' - an index for a manuscript found within Raffles Malay Manuscript 3 but not pertaining to it but to a manuscript written by different hands in the Marwari dialect and chiefly of Jain poems, possibly relating to Tod Ms.106. Handwritten, 4 sides, undated.
- 'An attempt to identify the Indian artist who painted a picture of Jahangir's Court' - an article by Henry Beveridge identifying the artist and the people portrayed in a watercolour painting of Jahangir and his courtiers donated to the Royal Asiatic Society by Major Charles Stewart, 5 July 1834, having been brought to England by Colonel Champion in 1775 and cleaned and regilded by Vaux in November 1880. Handwritten, 23 pages, dated 20 June 1915. The picture is no longer in the collections. Though written about in Foster's article The Pictures, etc., of the Royal Asiatic Society, (J.R.A.S. 1924) it was recorded as missing by the 1970 in the Society's guard books.
- Translation of the full-size copy of the Inscription to the Taula of Hafiz in Shiraz - handwritten, 2 pieces, [1929].