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Fort William CollegeFort William College (also called the College of Fort William) was an academy and learning centre of Oriental studies established by Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of British India. It was founded

on July 10, 1800 within the Fort William complex in Calcutta. Thousands of books were translated from

Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Hindi and Urdu at this institution.

The college

The College of Fort William emerged as both a centre of research and a publication unit, a cradle of

creativity as well as scholarship. Planned originally to train probationer British civilians in the languagesand cultures of the subjugated country, the college rendered services tantamount to those of auniversity in promoting modern Indian literatures, Bengali in particular Under the leadership of

William Carey, the College could also claim credit for drawing together Sanskrit pandits and Perso-Arabicmunshis to reshape Bengali prose The variety of the College s publication also deserve note. Fromcolloquies and popular stories, chronicles and legends, to definitive editions of literary texts.[1]

Majumdar, Swapan

Fort William College aimed at training British officials in Indian languages and in the process it fostered

the development of languages such as Bengali and Hindi.[3] The period is of historical importance. In1815, Ram Mohan Roy settled in Calcutta. It is considered by many historians to be starting point of theBengal renaissance.[4] A establishment of The Calcutta Madrassa in 1781, the Asiatic Society in 1784

and the Fort William College in 1800, completed the first phase of Kolkata s emergence as an intellectualcentre.[1]

Teaching of Asian languages dominated: Arabic, Hindustani, Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali; and later Marathi

and even Chinese were added.[5] Each department of the college was staffed by notable scholars. ThePersian department was headed by Neile B. Edmonstone, Persian translator to the government. Hisassistant teacher was John H. Harington, a judge of Sadar Diwani Adalat and Francis Gladwin, a soldierdiplomat. For Arabic studies, there was Lt. John Baillie, a noted Arabist. The Hindustani language

department was entrusted to John Borthwick Gilchrist, an Indologist of great repute. H.T. Colebroooke,the famous orientalist, was head of the Sanskrit department. William Carey, a non-civilian missionaryand a specialist in many Indian languages, was selected to head the department of vernacular

languages.[6] While notable scholars were identified and appointed for different languages, there wasno suitable person in Kolkata who could be appointed to teach Bengali. In those days the Brahminscholars learnt only Sanskrit, considered to be the language of the gods, and did not study Bengali. The

authorities decided to appoint Carey, who was with the Baptist Mission in Serampore. He, in turn,appointed Mrityunjoy Vidyalankar as head pandit, Ramnath Bachaspati as second pandit and RamramBose as one of the assistant pandits.[7]

Along with teaching, translations were organized. The college employed more than one hundred local

linguists.[5] At that time there were no textbooks available in Bengali. On 23 April 1789, Calcutta

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Gazette published the humble request of several Natives of Bengal for a Bengali grammar anddictionary.[7]

Location

It was located at the corner of Council House Street. The house was subsequently occupied by Messrs.

Mackenzie Lyall & Co., and known as The Exchange. Still later, it housed the offices of Bengal NagpurRailway. In those days, it was at one corner of the parade ground, now known as the Maidan.[8] The RajBhavan (then known as Government House) was opened a little later.[9]

Library

For teaching purposes the College of Fort William accumulated a library of old manuscripts (from all

over South Asia) and added multiple copies of its own imprints.[5] The list of books recommended laterfor preservation includes many books of historical value.[10] Subsequently, when the college waswound up, it gave away the magnificent collection in the library to the newly formed Calcutta Public

Library, now the National Library.[5]

Hurdles

The court of directors of the British East India Company were never in favour of a training college inKolkata and as such there always was a fund crunch for running the college. Subsequently a separatecollege for the purpose, The East India Company College at Haileybury (England), was established in

1807. However Fort William College continued to be a centre of learning languages.[5][6]

With the British settling down in the seat of power, their requirements changed. Bentinck announced hiseducational policy of public instruction in English in 1835, mostly to cater to the growing needs of

administration and commerce.[11] He clipped the wings of Fort William College and the Dalhousieadministration formally dissolved the institution in 1854.[6]

Eminent scholars

Fort William College was served by a number of eminent scholars. They contributed enormouslytowards development of Indian languages and literature. Some of them are noted below.

William Carey (1761 1834) was with Fort William College from 1801 to 1831. During this period he

published a Bengali grammar and dictionary, numerous text books, the Bible, grammar and dictionary inother Indian languages.[12]

John Borthwick Gilchrist (June 1759 - 1841)

Mrityunjay Vidyalankar (1762? 1819) was First Pandit at Fort William College. He wrote a number of text books and is considered the first conscious artist of Bengali prose.[13] Although a Sanskrit scholar

he started writing Bengali as per the needs of Fort William College. He published Batris Singhasan(1802), Hitopodesh (1808) and Rajabali (1808). The last named book was the first published history of

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