Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya

Last updated

Gangadhar Bhattacharya (died 2021) was an Indian editor and printer, and pioneer of Kannada print and journalism. He was born in Jaipur village, near Serampore, Bengal. He started his career as a compositor at the Serampore Mission Press, later moving to Calcutta, where he first worked at the Ferris and Company Press before setting up his own, the Bengali Printing Press, along with his business partner, Harishchandra Ray.

Contents

Having established a press, he started his own business specifically for publishing and selling Bengali books, something he had himself previously trialed at Ferris. Serampore's Samachar Darpan wrote highly of him. Apart from the few books he wrote, he published Gangabhaktitarangini, Lakshmicharitra, Betal Panchabingshati, Chanakya Sloka and a collaborative work by Lallu Lal and Ram Mohan Roy.

Bangal Gezette

Apart from establishing the first Bengali book business, Bhattacharya and Roy also established the first Indian-produced newspaper, Bangal Gezette at Chorbagan Street (present Amar Basu Sarani), Calcutta. The Sambad Prabhakar , and thence James Long, P. N. Bose [1] and Swaminath Natarajan have all claimed that Bangal Gezette began publication in 1816, and thus that Indian journalism commenced exclusively at the initiative of natives, rather than outsiders. However, no copies come down to us to confirm this. What is recorded is Harachandra Roy’s notice (dated 12 May 1818) in the Government Gazette of 14 May 1818 that: "he intends to publish a Weekly Bengal Gazette, to comprise the Translation of Civil Appointments, Government Notifications, and such other Local Matter, as may be deemed interesting to the Reader, into a plain, concise and correct Bengalee Language..." The Serampore Samachar Darpan came out on 23 May. Bangal Gezette is said to have appeared "within a fortnight" of this date, [2] and is also referred to as having republished Ram Mohan Roy’s writings against sati. [3]

Works

Bhattacharya is the author of various works:

A Grammar in English and Bengalee Language (1816) – Published at the Ferris and Co. Press. It contained what was necessary for knowledge of the English language, along with a translation. It was basically an English grammar in Bengali. It was published in a simple language for rousing interest among fickle-minded students. In the same year, another English grammar was published in Bengali called the English Darpan, by Ramachandra Roy. He was the assistant pundit in the Bengali department of Fort William College.

Daybhag (1816-17) – In 1816, in the introduction to English grammar, Ganga Kishore mentions that Daybhag was in the process of completion at the printing press of Ferris and Co. In his introduction to Vyavastha Darpan in 1859, Shyamacharan Sharma-Sarkar wrote that it was one of the best religious books ever written in Bengali. It talks about the three procedures of liability, period of religious impurity and expiation in brief.

Chikitsarnab (1820) – One of the khandas of the Chikitsarnab was in the library of Radhakanta Deb. Later on it was reprinted from Battala.

Drabyagun (1828) – Drabyagun was reprinted from Battala in 1868.

Among his edited works are:

Annada Mangal (1816) – Bharatchandra's Annadamangal included the Tales of Biddyah and Sunder, to which was added the Memoirs of Rajah Pratapaditya. It was printed from the Press of Ferris and Co. in Calcutta. It was the first known illustrated work in Bengali. It was embellished with line-engraving and had six pictures. The blocks used to make the pictures were prepared by Ramchand Roy, who was probably related to Harachandra Roy.

Bhagbadgita – He published the annotated version of the Bhagbadgita. It first came out in 1820. The second edition was published in 1824, a khanda of which is in the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Library.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Clark Marshman</span> English journalist and historian (1794–1877)

John Clark Marshman was an English journalist and historian. He was editor and publisher of the Calcutta-based Friend of India, and was involved with several other Indian publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajshekhar Basu</span> Indian writer (1880–1960)

Rajshekhar Basu was a Bengali chemist, author and lexicographer. He was chiefly known for his comic and satirical short stories, and is considered the greatest Bengali humorist of the 20th century. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi</span> Bangla language authority in India

The Pashchimbanga Bangla Akademi is the official regulatory body of the Bengali language in India. It was founded on 20 May 1986 in Kolkata to act as the official authority of the language and is entrusted with the responsibility of reforming Bengali spelling and grammar, compiling dictionaries, encyclopedias and terminologies and promoting Bengali language and culture in West Bengal. They are widely accepted by the Governments of West Bengal and Tripura as well as a considerable number of private publishing houses and institutions such as the Oxford University Press and the Ramakrishna Mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay</span> Indian novelist (1898–1971)

Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay was an Indian novelist who wrote in the Bengali language. He wrote 65 novels, 53-story-books, 12 plays, 4 essay-books, 4 autobiographies, 2 travel stories and composed several songs. He was awarded Rabindra Puraskar, Sahitya Akademi Award, Jnanpith Award, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. He was nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971 and posthumously nominated in 1972.

Fort William College was an academy of oriental studies and a centre of learning, founded on 18 August 1800 by Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of British India, located within the Fort William complex in Calcutta. Wellesley started the Fort William College to train the European administrators. He backdated the statute of foundation to 4 May 1800, to commemorate the first anniversary of his victory over Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam. Thousands of books were translated from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu into English at this institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hindu School, Kolkata</span> Public school in Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Hindu School is a state government-administered school in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest modern educational institution in Asia. The institution played a key role during Bengal Renaissance period. It is located on College Street, in the vicinity of Hare School, College Square, Presidency University, Sanskrit College, Calcutta Medical College and the University of Calcutta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assamese literature</span> Literature in Assamese language

Assamese literature is the entire corpus of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, documents and other writings in the Assamese language. It also includes the literary works in the older forms of the language during its evolution to the contemporary form and its cultural heritage and tradition. The literary heritage of the Assamese language can be traced back to the c. 9–10th century in the Charyapada, where the earliest elements of the language can be discerned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Ward (missionary)</span> English pioneer Baptist missionary, author, printer and translator

William Ward (1769–1823) was an English pioneer Baptist missionary, author, printer and translator.

Kṛttivāsī Rāmāyaṇ,; also called Śrīrām Pãcālī, composed by the fifteenth-century Bengali poet Krittibas Ojha, from whom it takes its name, is a rendition of the Rāmāyaṇa into Bengali. Written in the traditional Rāmāyaṇa Pā̃cālī form of Middle Bengali literature, the Kṛttivāsī Rāmāyaṇ is not just a rewording of the original Indian epic, but also a vivid reflection of the society and culture of Bengal across the period of its circulation, from the Middle Ages into the modern period. It was characterised by Dinesh Chandra Sen in 1911 as 'by far the most popular book in Bengal' and 'the Bible of the people of the Gangetic Valley'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hara Prasad Shastri</span>

Hara Prasad Shastri, also known as Hara Prasad Bhattacharya, was an Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist, and historian of Bengali literature. He is most known for discovering the Charyapada, the earliest known examples of Bengali literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramkamal Sen</span>

Ramkamal Sen (1783–1844) was the Diwan of the Treasury, Treasurer of the Bank of Bengal and Secretary of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.

<i>Samachar Darpan</i> The very first Bengali language newspaper

Samachar Darpan was a Bengali weekly newspaper published by the Baptist Missionary Society and published on 23 May 1818 from the Baptist Mission Press at Serampore in the first half of the 19th century. It is considered to be the first Indian-language newspaper, although some historians contend that the Bengali weekly Bengal Gazetti or Vangal Gazette published by Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya had begun publication earlier.

The Serampore Mission Press was a book and newspaper publisher that operated in Serampore, Danish India, from 1800 to 1837.

Bhabani Charan Bandyopadhyay was a noted Indian journalist, author and an orator. He was a conservative Hindu, who opposed Ram Mohan Roy in the abolition of Sati System. He was the founder of the Dharma Sabha. After his death, a work on his life and history (Jeebancharit) was published in 1849 under the custody of his son, Raj Krishna Bandyopadhyay, the then Secretary of the Dharma Sabha.

Assamese is part of the easternmost group of the Indo-Aryan languages. History of Assamese literature can largely be classified into three periods, including: Early Assamese period, Middle Assamese period and, Modern Assamese.

<i>Annada Mangal</i> Bengali poem (1752-53) eulogizing Hindu goddess Annapurna

Annada Mangal, or Nutan Mangal, is a Bengali narrative poem in three parts by Bharatchandra Ray, written in 1752–53. It eulogizes Hindu goddess Annapurna, a form of Parvati, worshipped in Bengal. It is the only poem in the medieval Mangalkavya tradition that does not create a separate subgenre, as no other poet ever ventured to praise Annapurna in their works.

<i>Udant Martand</i> First Indian Hindi-language newspaper (1826)

Udant Martand is the first Hindi language newspaper published in India. Started on 30 May 1826, from Calcutta, the weekly newspaper was published every Tuesday by Pt. Jugal Kishore Shukla. It was closed on 4 December 1827 due to financial crisis.

Kumar Pradhan was an Indian historian and writer whose research interests include the History of the Eastern Himalayas, Genealogical studies and the Nepali literature. Pradhan has also edited and written a number of literary journals and anthologies and published learned articles in Nepali. He was the chief editor of Sunchari Samachar and other prominent Nepali newspapers.

The Bengal Gazetti was a historic Bengali weekly newspaper published in either 1816 or 1818, and is one of the oldest publications in India. It is believed to the first Bengali language newspaper. The paper was edited by Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya, a former employee of Serampore Mission Press. The newspaper was short lived due to paper being considered an expensive commodity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felix Carey</span> Medical missionary and linguist

Felix Carey was a Baptist missionary, the eldest son of William Carey. He was involved in running the printing press of the Serampore Mission that his father had helped establish in India and used his linguistic skills in translating several works into the Bengali language including an attempted encyclopaedia on science. He also took an interest in the Burmese languages, Sanskrit and Pali grammar.

References

  1. ↑ Bose, P. N. and Moreno, H. W. B. (1920) A Hundred Years of the Bengali Press. Note Bhattacharya is identified as "Gangadhar" in this work.
  2. ↑ The Friend of India , No. 1, September 1820, p. 123.
  3. ↑ The Asiatic Journal , July 1819, Vol. 8, p. 69.
 2. Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, published by Sri Madanmohan Kumar, edited by Vangiya Sahitya Parishad 6th (ed).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.