It is the only independent charity concerned with the study of early India, Iran & Central Asia, promoting both scholarly research & popular interest in the area.
[1] It has a library of over 25,000 volumes and it organises a range of activities including conferences, public lectures and visiting fellowships.
The primary interest of the Trust has been in prehistory, archaeology, art history and ancient languages, but this often extends to more modern topics and other disciplines.
And yet, in the wake of South Asian independence, there were very few institutions, teaching posts or funds devoted to the promotion of popular or scholarly interest in any of these regions.
Today, the Trust runs a regular series of public lectures, visiting fellowship programmes and a bursary scheme for people wishing to come and use its library and other resources in Cambridge.