Walk Through The Pages Of History By Visiting One Of India’s Oldest Library

Asiatic Society in Park Street is a symbol of history which has over two centuries of treasure stored inside. Save the address if you are in the mood to take a lesson in history and relive your schooldays.

The initial days of this library go back 235 years to when poet, linguist and orientalist Sir William Jones established it in 1784. We can only imagine how precious it is! The library has a mind-boggling collection of 1,30,786 books, 1,09,438 journals and 48,355 microfiche. Are you a lover of languages? Then you will surely love this place, since it has books in French, German, Greek, Latin, Spanish, ancient languages such as Pali and Prakrit, Perso-Arabic, Urdu, Burmese, Mongolian, Japanese, Turkish and Hebrew, among others.

The vast expanse of subjects on which you will get books covers anthropology, archaeology, art, architecture, gender studies, history, science & technology, philosophy, literature, among others. Currently, Asiatic Society is not open for membership but this immense wealth of knowledge is accessible to all; so take a book and stroll through the pages in the reading room. Nothing else will give you more satisfaction than the smell of those old yellow pages, which when inhaled, acts like an intellectual intoxication.

We really hope that Asiatic Society resumes the option of subscribing to a membership.

Don’t forget to carry your college/school/university id cards, otherwise you won’t be allowed to access the books and the reading room!