Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
editor and printer, and pioneer of
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
print and journalism. He was born in Bahar village, near
Serampore
Serampore (also called ''Serampur'', ''Srirampur'', ''Srirampore'', ''Shreerampur'', ''Shreerampore'', ''Shrirampur'' or ''Shrirampore'') is a city of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarter of the Srirampor ...
,
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
. He started his career as a compositor at the
Serampore Mission Press
The Serampur Mission Press was a book and newspaper publisher that operated in Serampur, Danish India, from 1800 to 1837.
The Press was founded by William Carey, William Ward, and other British Baptist missionaries at the Serampur Mission. It b ...
, later moving to
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, 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.
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
Lallu Lal (1763–1835) was an academic, author and translator from British India. He was an instructor in the Hindustani language at Fort William College in Hastings, Calcutta. He is notable for ''Prem Sagar'', the first work in modern literary ...
and
Ram Mohan Roy
Raja Ram Mohan Roy ( bn, রামমোহন রায়; 22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was an Indian reformer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, a social-religious reform m ...
.
'' 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
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
. The ''
Sambad Prabhakar
''Sambad Prabhakar'' (also ''Sangbad Prabhakar''; bn, সংবাদ প্রভাকর) was a Bengali daily newspaper founded by Ishwar Chandra Gupta. It began as a weekly newspaper in 1831 and became a daily eight years later in 1839. It w ...
'', and thence James Long, P. N. Bose 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 , 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, and is also referred to as having republished Ram Mohan Roy’s writings against
sati
Sati or SATI may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Sati'' (film), a 1989 Bengali film by Aparna Sen and starring Shabana Azmi
* ''Sati'' (novel), a 1990 novel by Christopher Pike
*Sati (singer) (born 1976), Lithuanian singer
*Sati, a character in ''Th ...
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
''Annada Mangal'' ( bn, অন্নদামঙ্গল), or ''Nutan Mangal'' ( bn, নূতনমঙ্গল), is a Bengali narrative poem in three parts by Bharatchandra Ray, written in 1752–53. It eulogizes Hindu goddess Annapurna, a fo ...
(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
Bangiya Sahitya Parishat is a literary society in Maniktala of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Established during the time of the British Raj, its goal is to promote Bengali literature, both by translating works in other languages to Bengali and ...
2. Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, published by Sri Madanmohan Kumar, edited by
Vangiya Sahitya Parishad
Bangiya Sahitya Parishat is a literary society in Maniktala of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Established during the time of the British Raj, its goal is to promote Bengali literature, both by translating works in other languages to Bengali and ...