The First Printed Works of Bengal

In Germany, around 1440, goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg , invented the printing press, which started the Printing Revolution . In Renaissance Europe, the arrival of mechanical printing introduced the era of mass communication and is considered a watershed moment in the history of humanity . Over the next two centuries , this new found tool was spread in countries across the world by the European imperial powers .Unsurprisingly , the introduction of printing in India with movable metal types also is attributed to the European colonizers and missionaries . The first printing press in India was established by the Jesuits in the Portuguese colony of Goa in 1556 . According to some records , Bhimjee Parekh , with the aid of the East India Company , established a press at Bombay in 1674-75 but no books from this press survive today . Bartholomew Ziegenbalg , a Danish missionary , established a press at Tranquibar in 1712 , which printed with Tamil types .

After the Portuguese consolidated their trading and political settlements on the Western Coast of India , they took little time to establish links with the province of Bengal . Trading colonies and missionary outposts sprang up around the port city of Chittagong (Porto Grande) after 1581 , including one at Nagori which was associated with the printing of the first three Bengali books . Several records of this time illustrate the interest of Portuguese missionaries and administrators in Bengali books . Dominic de souza , a missionary working in Bengal , appears to have translated two books on Christian Doctrine and catechisms written by his fellow missionaries from Nolua Cot and Sripur into Bengali . A little catechism in Bengali was composed by Father Barbier in early 1723 . None of these books are extant and it is not known whether they were printed or not . Shortly after them , a few books were printed in Bengali outside India . The most remarkable of these were three books attributed to Father Manoel de Assampcao , an Augustinian , who came to Bengal at around 1734 and was attached as a rector to the Catholic Church of Nagori near Bhowal in Dacca district . His 'Catechisms de doutrina christaa' was printed by Francisco da Silva in Lisbon in 1743 . The second and third books by Father Manoel were respectively 'Compendio dos mysterios da fe' and 'Vocabulario em idioma bengalla e protuguez dividido em duas partes' , both printed in Lisbon by Da Silva in the same year . However , this missionary publications led to little perceptible development of indigenous literature . 

After the Battle of Plassey in 1757 , the East India Company gained control of the rich province of Bengal . By 1772 , the company had skillfully employed the sword , diplomacy and intrigue to take over the rule of Bengal from her people , factious nobles and weak Nawabs . Subsequently , to consolidate its hold on the province , the Company promoted the Bengali literature . Instrumental in the advancement of Bengali printing was Company's decision to teach Bengali to its employees . Notable English Orientalists like Halhed , Carey and Nathaniel Pitts Forster stoutly promoted the teaching of Bengali in pure Sanskritized form . The Islamic languages including Muslim Bengali were under attack . Progress in the writing of non-Islamic indigenous languages were however rapid . After 1755 , public notices in native vernaculars were posted in bazaars . Warren Hastings , Governor of Bengal in 1772 and later Governor General from 1773 to 1785 , shown keen interest in training Englishmen serving in India in native vernacular . The learning of  Indic languages was an essential requirement and this was emphasized in the curricula of the Fort William and Haileybury colleges . An active patron of such Indic Scholars as Halhed ,Wilkins ,Gladwin,Jones and others , Hastings insisted that they produce enough books in the Indic languages for such students . William Wilberforce , the English Philanthropist and politician , proposed in Parliament in 1793 , during the governorship of Lord Cornwallis , that the East India Company provide more and better facilities of education to its native subjects . This induced European missionaries and enlightened gentlemen to establish printing presses . Two great landmarks in the history of printing in Bengal were the establishment of Serampore Mission in 1799 and the founding of Fort William College in 1800 . In 1816 , with the support of the Marquis of Hastings , Butterworth Bailey,William Carey and others , the Calcutta Book Society was founded .

A Brief History of Printing Presses in Bengal

The first printing press in Bengal was that of Mr. Andrews of Hooghly established in 1778 . The famous Bengali grammar book by Halhed was printed here . In 1780 , James Augustus Hickey founded the Bengal Gazette Press , publisher of the slanderous 'Bengal Gazette' - known popularly as 'Hickey's Gazette' . In 1784 , Francis Gladwin established the Calcutta Gazette Press which used to publish the official documents of the British Government and East India Company . A little later the government also founded its own press under the supervision of Charles Wilkins - father of Bengali type founding . Other presses apparently established at the end of the eighteenth century were - the Calcutta Chronicle Press,the Post Press,Ferris and Company and Rozario and Company.

In 1799 , Marquis of Welleseley imposed severe restrictions on press which continued till 1818 when Marquis of Hastings restored its past freedom . Subsequently a greater number of presses were established , including some owned by Indians . There were about forty presses in Calcutta alone by the end of 1825-26 . These included Lavandier's Press at Bow Bazaar , Pearces Press at Entally and Ram Mohan Roy's Unitarian Press at Dhurrumtollah . Baburam's Sanskrit Yantra at Kidderpore , established in 1806-07 , specalised in printing of Hindi and Sanskrit books in Deva Nagari types . Other important presses were Munshi Hedayetullah's Mohammadi Press at Mirzapore , the Hindustanee Press and the College Press.    

The first printed Bengali alphabet appeared in a work of the Jesuit Fathers - Jean De Fontenay , Guy Tachard , Etienne Noel  and Claude de Beze . A Hindustani Garammar by Joshua Ketelaer appeared in Miscellane Oriental , published at Leyden in 1743 . This reproduced almost the whole Bengali alphabet . Nothing is known about the casting of these types and they were based on not-too-good models of calligraphy . In line with the English interests in India , Joseph Jackson was the first to take up the problem of Bengali typing . Establishing his own foundry , he manufactured various oriental types . The first significant stride in Bengali typography , printing and publication was made in 1778 with the appearance of  'A Grammar of The Bengal Language' by Halhed . It was a full-sized work with copious extracts from various main Bengali manuscripts then extant . Interestingly,  the Bengali typeface used for printing this book was created by Panchanan Karmakar - a wordsmith from Tribeni in Hooghly. 

A Grammar of the Bengal Language is a 1778 modern Bengali grammar book written in English by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed. This is the first grammar book of the Bengali language. The book, published in 1778, probably printed from the Endorse Press in Hooghly, Bengal Presidency.

The Earliest Surviving Text Printed in Bengal

In November 1777, a missionary named Johann Zachariah Kiernander approached Hicky to print calendars for the next year. Kiernander had been importing calendars from South India and was looking for a cheaper alternative.

However, there was a disagreement over price, so Kiernander went in search of his own printing press. By January 1778 Kiernander’s son Robert appears to have acquired a press, although it is unclear from where. On 7 January he wrote a letter to missionary colleagues in Halle, Germany saying that he had begun printing calendars and advertising them for sale in Calcutta.

These calendars set off a competition that soon turned rancorous. Hicky began printing his own calendars. Unable to compete with Hicky on price – and upset that Hicky had very likely plagiarized their calendar – the Kiernanders began giving theirs away for free. (The disagreements later became so rancorous that Hicky used his newspaper to accuse the elder Kiernander of embezzling from a charity and Kiernander sued Hicky for libel) .

Some prints of these calendars are preserved in the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London . They are considered the earliest surviving printed texts in Bengali . Although there is doubt about  whom between Hicky and Kiernander these belonged to . However , they are more likely of Kiernanders’. For two reasons: first, Hicky tended to sign his name to everything he printed. Two other surviving calendars which he printed – one for the year 1780 [EB 77.35 / 12040] and one for 1782 – both declare “Printed by J. A. Hicky” on the title page . Hicky was such an advocate for branding that he named his newspaper after himself . It’s Hicky’s Bengal Gazette, not the Bengal Gazette. Even advertisements that Hicky printed bear his name (more on that below). Second, Hicky’s calendars look different; note the motifs, ornaments and floral marks.

Page for September 1778, indicating Gregorian, Hijri lunar and Bengali calendar dates, with entries in English, and Persian, Bengali, from ‘Calendar for the year of our Lord MDCCLXXVIII. Calculated to the Meridian of Calcutta‘, part of MS 12235, School of Oriental and African Studies Special Collections

Title page from Kiernander’s ‘Calendar for the year of our Lord MDCCLXXVIII. Calculated to the Meridian of Calcutta‘ (1778), MS 12235, School of Oriental and African Studies Special Collections.

Title page, Hicky’s ‘A Compleat [sic] Calendar for the Year of our Lord MDCCLXXX’, (1780), EB 77.35 / 12040, SOAS Special Collections. Hicky’s calendar for 1782 – which is at Cambridge University Library – is nearly identical.

 Also in the SOAS library is the following advertisement for Chinese goods for sale in Calcutta which was printed by James Augustus Hicky. This advertisement was found inside Hicky’s calendar for 1780. When the calendar was bound, the advertisement was used as a “waste paper” to stiffen the binding. The date it was printed is uncertain but must be between 1777 (the start of Hicky’s printing press) and the end of 1779 (when the calendar was printed). At some time between 1918 and 1939, the waste paper was removed by a librarian at SOAS which is how it came to notice.³[A note with the wastepaper indicates it was later removed by staff and affixed to a support in January 1972].

Wastepaper removed from Hicky’s ‘A Compleat (sic) Calendar for the Year of our Lord MDCCLXXX’ (1780), EB 77.35 / 12040, SOAS Special Collections

The wastepaper is the type of material that rarely survives through the centuries, making its discovery all the more remarkable. Handbills like this were generally used as scrap and tend not to survive long after printing. More remarkable is that this handbill is the third surviving printed work from North India and Bengal (after the calendars above, and Halhed and Wilkins’ Grammar of the Bengal Language).

References

1) https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/archives/2019/06/28/the-first-printed-works-of-bengal/

2) M. Siddiq Khan. (1962). The Early History of Bengali Printing. The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, 32(1), 51-61. Retrieved September 15, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4305188