Question

Look at the picture and answer the following question.
What is the name of the person in the picture?

Answer 1

Hint: He was the founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He was also a judge at the Supreme Court of Judicature, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Complete answer:
The person in the picture is Sir William Jones. He was a philologist who was born in London on 28th September 1746. His father was a Welsh mathematician named William Jones, who is known to use the symbol π in mathematics for the very first time.

Sir William Jones was sent to Harrow School in 1753 and then to University College in Oxford where he graduated in 1768. In 1770, he joined The Honorable Society of the Middle Temple to study law for the next three years. On 4th March 1783, Sir William Jones was appointed as the judge to the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Calcutta.

During his time in the Indian Subcontinent he was entranced by the Indian Culture, and he ended up founding the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, on 15 January 1784, which was later renamed to Asiatic Society of Bengal. For the next ten years, Sir William Jones did a lot of literary work in India, launched a modern study of the Indian Subcontinent, wrote on laws, music, geography and even made the first English translations of various important works of Indian literature. He passed away in 1749 when he was 47 years old and is buried in South Park Street Cemetery.

Note: Sir William Jones was knighted on 20th March 1783. He was married to Anna Maria Shipley, who was the daughter of Dr. Jonathan Shipley, a clergyman who held offices in the Church of England.