After cleaning the seas of naval competition British set up their minds for establishing efficient and lasting regime. To learn more about the cultural environment, as well as to publish the literary heritage of the Vedas, in 1784 the Asiatic Society of Bengal was established in Calcutta. Charles Wilkins was the first to study Sanskrit and in 1785 the first English rendition of Bhagavad-Gita was published.

Several of the British intellectuals began noticing that the Vedic culture was far more ancient then anything they have encountered before on the Middle East. In 1786 Sir William Jones announced to the Asiatic Society of Bengal that Sanskrit was related to Latin and Greek, as well as Persian, Celtic and Gothic.  Even though a hundred years earlier this was noticed before by Florentine merchant Filippo Sassetti, he was the first to present this to academia. Though a devoted Christian Sir William Jones proclaimed fascination with Vedic literature:

“ I am in love with Gopia, charmed with Crishen ( Krishna ) and admirer of Raama……I am no Hindu, but I hold the doctrine of the Hindus concerning the future state (reincarnation) to be incomparably more rational, more pious and more likely to deter men from vice than the horrid opinions inculcated by Christians on punishment without end.”