Aliah University has with it the rich heritage of the 235-year-old educational and cultural institution,Mohammedan College of Calcutta, popularly known as Madrasah-i-Aliah or Calcutta Madrasah, the first educational institution set up in India in 1780 by Warren Hastings, the then Governor General of Bengal Presidency. In 1791, during the period of British rule in India, Jonathan Duncan, the representative of the East India Company proposed the establishment of a Sanskrit college for development and preservation of the Sanskrit Vangmaya and to show that the English people were in favour of the development of the Indian culture.