History of printing and publishing in Dhaka

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It can not be said with certainty where the first printing press was set up in Bangladesh. It is
conjectured that the first printing press in Bangladesh was in Rangpur during 1847, about 335
kilometres away from Dhaka. The first printed piece from this printing press was a weekly newspaper
named Rangapur Barttabaha ( ) in August, 1847. In addition the first two Bengali weekly
newspapers were from Rangpur. Printing machine took more than sixty years to reach East
Bengal or Dhaka from Kolkata. The first English weekly newspaper, The Dacca News was printed
and published from Dhaka in 1856. So, it is assumed that after nine years of Rangpur press, the first
printing machine of Dhaka was established and the press was named 'Dacca Press'.
Contents
[hide]

1 Dacca Press
2 Kattra Press

3 Bangala Jantra ( )

4 Other Printing Machines

5 Location

6 Text Books

7 Others

8 Law

9 Biographical and Autobiographical books

10 History Books

11 Novel

12 Poetry

13 Books on Medical science

14 Religion

15 Play and Farce

16 Panchali

17 Puthi

18 Prose

19 Patha Kabita

20 Notes

21 Sources

Dacca Press[edit]
The printed edition of The Dacca News came out on 18 April 1856 from the Dacca Press. In the
beginning, it was a one page edition costing two annas per copy. It was initially a weekly paper
coming out on every Saturday. With the 13th version, the pages were increased to four and it also
had a 'supplement' but the then current market price was cause of concern. With its second volume,
the pages were increased to eight. [1] There were five owners of Dacca Press who were also the
owners of the newspaper. They were A.M Cameron, N.P Pogose, J.A Greg, J.P Wise, K.A Gani. [2] It
was a tumultuous period when the riot between English indigo planters and Bengali peasants was at
its peak. Most of the owners were zamindars and they published newspapers to secure their own
interests. Alexander Forbes, the editor of The Dacca News wrote in one of the edition of The Dacca
News:
"In an out-of-way, if not the most out of-the-wayest corner of the world, we established a press. We
had not a single compositor, or Printer or Devil. We had to educate them all. We set up, in type, a
great part of our first members with our own hands. We have been, down to the present day, our
own chief correcter of proofs." [3]
Sreenath Dutta, a Bengali, was the printer of the newspaper till the 13th edition. Probably, Forbes
had trained him. It was during the time, that the printing press faced severe adversity, though Dhaka
had been once the capital of Bengal and also one of the major cities of the East Bengal at that time.
Forbes mentions in one of the editions of Dacca News of 1856 that he could not print a report due to
the lack of necessary types.

Kattra Press[edit]

Title Page of The First Report from Kattra Press

A Bangladeshi writer and historian, Muntasir Mamun in his book Unish Shatake Dhakar Mudran o
Prakashana(18481900), mentions that he finds 'The First Report of the East Bengal Missionary
Society. MDCC-CXLVIII with an Appendix etc.'.It was in octavo form containing forty pages. 'Dacca:
Printed at the Kattra Press, 1849' was written on its title page. It suggests that printing press exists in
Dhaka before 1856. Thus it can be said that the printing press first starts working in the year of
1848/49 in Kattra. Muntasir Mamun wants to meanChhoto Kattra where the Baptist Missionaries
resided and set up their offices. So this report published in 1849 by Baptist Missionaries is the first
printed piece. Two more Bengali books named Prahelika () and Prarthana Anukram (
) were from kattra. Though Prahelika was the first Bengali book of East Bengal, it was not
published completely in Bengali.
During 1847, Reverend Johannes Heberlein was in charge of East Bengal Missionary Society of
Dhaka. Evangelical Missionary Society of Basel sent Samuel Boast and Frederick Lehman to assist
him. Boast was skilled in the field of printing. Under his direction the first press was set up in 1848 in
Chhoto Kattra which he brought from Basel. Graham Shaw speculates that the Kattra Press survives
four years. Then it was bought in order to publish Dacca News. It is not known whether more were
printed except the report and two books from there. [4] When Dacca News stops printing, another
English newspaper The Bengal Times was published from Dacca press and existed till the twentieth
century.

Bangala Jantra ( )[edit]

Image of Bangala Jantra

During 1848-1857, two more machines were brought to Dhaka but that did not make much impact
on the slack business of printing andpublishing. The establishment of Bangala Jantra in 1860 was a
watershed in the printing history of Dhaka. Its proprietor was a Bengali. This changed things for the

better because after this, Bengali books and newspapers were being published at a frequent rate.
Following this, more machines were brought to Dhaka.
The Printing Press became an important tool of exchanging thoughts or opinions. The Brahmo
Movement in Bengal played a vital role in the printing history. The Brahmos published Dacca
Prakash ( ) while the orthodox Hindus published Hindu Hitaishini ( ) from Sulov
Jantra in response to the former paper.
Abdul Qayyum quotes from the essay of Girijakanta Ghosh that the owners of the Bangala Jantra
were Braja Sundar Mitra, Bhagaban Chandra Basu and Kashikanta Mukhopadhyay.[5] Braja Sundar
Mitra undertook the enterprise but there were other partners of Bangala Jantra. On the fifth year, one
of the personnel of Dacca Prakash, Govinda Prasad Roy bought the ownership of Bangala Jantra
and Dacca Prakash. After the death of Govinda Prasad, his son-in-law, Yadav Chandra Sen took up
the responsibilities of both the press and newspaper. He continued only for two years and handed
them over to Talukdar Babu Guruganga Aich Chowdhury of Charipara ofManikganj. Guruganga
became the owner of Bangala Jantra and Dacca Prakash for just 3450 taka and worked sixteen
years as its editor. Financial crisis led him to hand over the ownership to Shrijukta Mukunda Bihari
Chakrabarty (B.A) and Radha Raman Ghosh (B.A). After a few days, Mukunda Bihari became the
sole owner and ran it for thirty years. Dacca Prakash was still published in 1959 when it had as its
editor, Abdul Rashid.
The first Bengali monthly periodical Kabita Kusumabali ( ) of East Bengal or Dacca was
published from Bangala Jantra in 1860. The editor was none other the poet, Krishna Chandra
Mazumdar. But the publication of the said periodical stopped in 1860. In that very year a monthly
named Nababyabohar Sanghita ( ) edited by lawyer Ramchandra Bhowmick was
published from Bangala Jantra. Deenabandhu Mitra's Neel Darpan also came out from Bangala
Jantra in 1860.

Other Printing Machines[edit]

In 1862, another machine named 'Nutan Jantra' was brought to Dhaka but the name of the owner
remains unknown. The monthlyAbakash Ranjika ( ) and Chittaranjika () in 1862,
were probably printed by the machine.
'Shulav Jantra' was set up in 1863. The manager of it was a poet - Harish Chandra Mitra but nothing
is known about its ownership. The periodicals edited by Harish Chandra from this machine, were
published respectively as Dacca Darpan(1863), Kabbya Prakash ( ) (1864), then there was
a weekly called Hindu Hitaishini(against the Brahmo movement), Shuva Shadhini ( )
and Hitakari ()(1871). Many Musalmani puthi were printed from this press. In 1864, Girish
Chandra Roy of Baliati established 'Biggyapani Jantra'. In 1865, a weekly
named Biggyapani () was published by the machine, and was edited by Krishna Chandra
Mazumdar. Biggyapani Jantra was transferred to Mymensingh in 1866 and within two years it was
closed down.
In 1869, Girish Chandra Roy again put up a machine named 'Girish Jantra' in Dhaka. Harish
Chandra Mitra (the founder of the weekly Hindu Hitaishaini), published a periodical -Mitra
Prakash ( ) from this Girish Jantra. In 1874, Kali Prasanna Ghosh bought out the Girish
Jantra. A monthly that was edited by him, wasBandhab ()which was also printed from there.
Though a literary person, he was a skilled businessman as well. Within a few days, Girish Jantra
made its mark on the printing industry. Most of the books from Dhaka were printed from it and it did
survive for a long time. Foyezunnesa Chowdhurani's Rupjalal ()(1876) was also printed
from the Girish Jantra.
The Brahmos, Hindus, Europeans initiated the printing project in Dhaka in the 1870s and the
Muslims later entered the market. The latter mainly printed puthis. According to Professor Qayyum,
'Mohammadi Jantra' was the first Muslim Printing Press of Dhaka, situated at Fazle Ali

Bazar near Begum Bazar. Munshi Mohammad Jan was its owner. In 1878-79, 'Sayedi Jantra was
set up in the same place with Abul Baset as its owner. 'Azizia Press' ( ) was perhaps
established in 1882 in Mogoltuli. The owner of the press was the puthi-writer Munshi Mohammad
Foyezuddin. To print Musalmani puthi, a special kind of type was necessary. Before the
establishment of printing press, they had to use the press of the Hindus. Thus there were usually
some spelling mistakes. Many puthi writers used their own styles to make the types and also warned
others not to copy or imitate their works.
Exactly, what kinds of printing machines were used in Dacca (Dhaka) can not be definitely said
but Dacca Prakash was printed by 'Chila or Columbian Press'. Albion Press was also popular in this
time. These were made of iron. Albion press was of good quality. That is why, Albion machines were
the most imported machines from Kolkata.
Little is known about the expenses incurred due to printing and publishing of a single piece from
Dacca. In 1863, an account of the expenses was found in an advertisement inDacca Prakash. The
advertisemnet stated the price of per forme of Bengali printing was six taka and per forme of English
was five taka.[6]
Even after the seven years, the expenses remained the same even though the market was
competitive. In the beginning,prices were high. But to expand the market, the prices of compose and
printing were reduced. In 1880, the proprietor manager, Govinda Prasad Roy of Dacca
Prakash published an English advertisement :
"THE DACCA BENGALI PRESS of various sorts of English Types and are ready to execute neatly
and clearly. With Despatch and at moderate charge,Book, Pamphlet,Letters,Catalogues,Cheques,
Recipts Labels,Cards and other sorts of Job works."[7]
During (186070)s, to bear the expenses of the press, various types of forms were printed for sale.
Among these, the forms of invoices, challans,cheques and other mercantile forms were in demand.
Even many of the press type forms were used as stationery shops where papers were also sold.
In the beginning, the compositors got comparatively higher salary than the editors because skilled
compositors were hard to find. For example, the head compositor of Dacca Prakash received more
salary than the editor - the poet Krishna Chandra Mazumdar.[8] From the twentieth century, the salary
of a compositor started declining because of the competitive and expansive printing market.

Location[edit]
The various press of Dhaka were not centred or located in a particular place. Most of them were
located in the areas between Banglabazar to Begumbazar. Apart from these, some were located
in Mogoltuli or Armanitola. As books were usually sold from Patuatuli and Baburbazar, most of the
machines were set up in these areas. The many press of Dhaka became a centre of socio economic
exchange. Book-shops or libraries were not there then. All kinds of people like authors, publishers,
editors, printers, compositors,workers,retailers and their friends - in short, all who were associated
with the books, always gathered around the many press from Banglabazar to Begumbazar.
Around the nineteenth century printing and publishing of the Bengali books were in two categories text books() and others (not included- the school/college text books).

Text Books[edit]
Right from the beginning of the nineteenth century,there was a great demand of text books for the
increasing number of pathshalas and schools. Serampore Missionaries,Calcutta School Book
Society and Calcutta School Society initiated publishing text books. Madan Mohan
Tarkalankar and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar were not only the pioneering figures but they hold a
strong legacy for the next generations. Among the text books Barnashiksha,Balyashiksha ()

or Primer were more popular. Ram Sundar Basak wrote Balyashiksha for the students of East
Bengal and it was published from Sulav Jantra in 1877. [9] Text Books were the most published books
from Dacca. Publishing ofBodhini(note on textbooks) or note books were increasing and highly for
business purpose. The popular text books and note books writers were Harish Chandra Mitra, Kali
Prasanna Ghosh, Nabakanta Chattapadhyay, Dinanath Sen and so on. Govinda Prasad
Das' Byakaran Saar ( ) (185963), Pranlal Chakrabarti's Ankabodh () (first volume1866), Annadakishore Sen's Arther Sharthokota(1868) and Dinanath Sen's Dhaka Jelar Vugol
ebong songkhepe Oitihashik Biboron ( ) were notable.

Others[edit]
This section is empty. You can help
by adding to it. (January 2011)

Law[edit]
The British colonisers made laws for the Indians and attempted to translate it into Bengali to make
them aware of it. The middle class started believing in its neutral location and thought the laws would
save and protect them. At this time, law as a profession began booming. So the books on law were
in high demand. During the nineteenth century, not many books on law were available, but about
forty four books were published from Dacca (Dhaka). Among these, Tarinikumar Basu's 1866 Shaler
6 act,no-1, 5, 15 and 25 Aain( ,-, , ) was the oldest and it was
printed from Bangala Jantra in 1866.

Biographical and Autobiographical books[edit]

About thirty biographical and autobiographical books were published from Dacca (Dhaka) in the
nineteenth century. Only three books were autobiographical among them. The oldest autobiography
was Etibritto(1868) by Krishna Chandra Mazumdar and the others were Sangkhipto Jibon
Brittanta ( ) (1882) by Rashbihari Mukhopadhaya and Shekaler Darogar
Kahini ( ) (1888) by Girish Chandra. In 1898, a biography named Victoria
Charita ( ) by Kamakhya Charan Bandopadhyay was published from Dacca(Dhaka).

History Books[edit]
In the nineteenth century saw only twenty historical books being published from Dacca(Dhaka).
Among them wereBanga Etihash er saar(1866) by Govinda Chandra Chattapadhyay which was the
earliest to be published and hence the oldest. Some books were used as school or college text
books like Bangalar Etihash ( ) byKedareshwar Chakrabarty and Bangladesh o Assam
er Sangkhipta Bibaran ( ) by Dinanath Sen.

Novel[edit]
Nineteenth Century can be marked as the first phase of writing of the Bengali novels. But then
novels had not yet realised its fullest potential in Bengali. Bankim Chandra
Chattopadhyay developed this proto-novelistic phase and thereby novel achieved its full form. The
novels published from Dacca(Dhaka) were fewer in number when compared to Kolkata. Only twentysix novels were published from Dacca and Jagrata Swapna ( ) (1864) by Barada Prasad
Roy was among them.

Religion became a major issue in some of the novels. For example, Islam in Prem
Darpan by Arjumund Ali, Brahmo in Rajkumari () by Ananda Chandra Mitra and Christianity
in Haran Chandra Raha's Sarala ()etc.

Poetry[edit]
In the second half of the nineteenth century, poetry was a vital tool of expression of myriad thoughts
including patriotism . The major poets of the East Bengal were Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Ananda
Chandra Mitra, Kaykobaad, Krishna Chandra Mazumdar, Nabin Chandra Sen, Govinda Chandra
Das and Harish Chandra Mitra. The first monthly published from Dacca was a poetry
magazine- kusumabali edited by Krishna Chandra Mazumdar, Harish Chandra Mitra and Prasanna
Kumar Sen. More than hundred books on poetry were published from Dacca in the nineteenth
century.

Books on Medical science[edit]

In order to introduce the western medical science, the then British Governor George
Campbell[disambiguation needed] in 1873, decided to set up medical schools in Calcutta (Kolkata), Dacca
(Dhaka) and Patna and the medium of teaching was Bengali. This necessitated the publishing of
Bengali books on medical science for the medical students. Dacca contributed much in publishing of
these books than any others. The first book published from Dacca was Formulary Book by Aainuddin
Ahmed in 1872. Many journals on it were also published from Dacca. They were -Ayurved
Sanjibani ( ), Chikitsa (

), Chikitsa Darpan (

), Vishak (), Homeopathik Anubadika ( ), Homeopathik

Pracharak ( ) and so on. The notable writers were Kashi Chandra Dutta, Durga
Das Roy, Dwarakanath Gupta, Surya Narayan Ghosh,Hari Prasad Chakrabarty and so on.

Religion[edit]
A strong religious sense never allowed the Bengali of the nineteenth century to think freely. This
gradually made life complex and so there were attempts to reform the religious issues which later
took a form of movements. As consequences of these movements, Brahmo Samaj emerged out to
uproot the evils in orthodox Hinduism like the 'Satidaha pratha', 'Koulinya Pratha'. Islamic doctrines
were also attempted to change. By this time, in the Indian sub-continent missionaries started
disseminating Christianity. In the first half of the nineteenth century, they published many books on
Christianity. Even the first book published from Dacca (Dhaka) was about Christianity. Most of the
religious books from Dacca contained the various methods of performing prayers of the respective
religions. Koulinya Sangshadhani ( ) and Bollali Sangshadhani ( ) were
significant books on religion.

Play and Farce[edit]

Title Page of Nil Darpan by Deenabandhu Mitra

Plays,farces were written to portray the social disparity, moral depreciation and above all to show the
complete picture of the society. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the influential play, Nil
Darpan ( ) by Dinabandhu Mitra was published from Dacca (Dhaka). Another notable
play Swarnashrinkhal () by doctor Durgadas Kar was probably from Dacca. Harish Chandra
Mitra andHarihar Nandi were significant among the farce writers. Eight farces of Harish Chandra
were published from Dacca. They were - Myao Dhorbe Ke? ( ?), Janaki Natak(
), Ghar Thakte Babui Veje ( ),Agamani (), Shuvosra Shighrang (
), Hatavagya Shikshak ( ), Prahallad Natak ( ) and Nirbasita Seeta (
).

Panchali[edit]
A great number of panchalis saw being published from Dacca as the Bengalis of the early nineteenth
century extremely believed in fatalism. According to the 'Press and Registration Act of Books(1867)',
most of the panchalis were not submitted to the Government. Thus, little is known about the
panchalis. The published panchalis from Dacca were mainly written on Shani-Dev, Peer-Satya
Narayan (Satya as Narayan to the Hindus and Peer to the Muslims), Trinath and so on. They were
cheap, small in size (not more than twelve pages). During the 1870s, most of the panchalis were
published from Dacca.

Puthi[edit]
Most of the puthis had for its subject - Islam and its saints. Thus, Puthi differs from Panchali in this
respect. Dacca (Dhaka) became the centre of the publication of puthis as Muslims were the majority.
The popular puthi-writers were Khoaz Master, Abdul Gafur, Abdul Karim,Sayed Jan, Moniruddin
Ahmed, Munshi Azimuddin, Munshi Abdur Rahim. Del Aram(1867) ( ), Sher Mashgul(1885)
( ),Shah Parir Path ( ) (1887) and Usuf Jolekha ( ) (1896) by Munshi
Garibullah were published from Dacca.

Prose[edit]
Around the first half of the nineteenth century, in the Indian sub-continent, Missionaries began writing
proses to spread Christianity. But few proses were published from Dacca because the writers did not
achieve the creativity and intellectuality of that is necessary in writing prose pieces. In 1869, Kali
Prasanna Ghosh's first book Nari Jati Bishayak Prostab ( ) was published from
Dacca (Dhaka). Abdus Sobhan's Hindu Mosolman ( ) (1891) published from Dhaka is
one of the significant prose pieces of the time.

Patha Kabita[edit]
Literary critics and historians do not consider it a great literary piece. It consists of four,eight or
sixteen pages in double demai mewsprint papers and was very cheap. Due to poor communication,
Dhaka faced problems of news dissemination. The Patha-kobi used to compose instantly what
happened around like the Tornado in 1877,the earthquake in 1897 and so on and thus patha-kobitas
became the authentic source of news. With the development of communication system,rising rate of
education,availability of newspaper faded away its importance and drove the patha -kobi to
extinction. The patha-kobitas published from Dhaka were of Kushai Sarkar's Nanabidho
Gaan ( ) that were printed from Samantak Jantra in 1892 and Bipin Chand Gopes Jhorer
Gaan ( ) printed by Jagabandhu Dey from Garib Jantra.[10]

Printing
The most important event that revolutionized the literary production by
changing the relationship between the author and the audience and the
nature of the transmission process of texts was the advent of the printing
press. Joshua Marshman (1769 1837), Willam Ward (1769 1823) and
Willam Carey (1761 1834), three Christian missionaries of the Baptits
Mission started a printing press at Serampore, then under Danish protection,
in January 1800, with the intention of Printing the Bible in different languages
in India. Within a decade, that press, known as the Serampore Mission
Press, grew into a massive organization, the greatest type foundry in Asia.
About this time the first printing press was established in Bengal by the East
India Company with Charles Wilkins as its superintendent. Wilkins, a nephew
of British printer and engraver R. B. Way, often eulogized as one who gave to
Asia typographic art, cut the Bengali types with the help of a local
blacksmith, Panchanan Karmaker.