Panchanan Karmakar (Mallick) (died c. 1804) was an Indian

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 ...

inventor, born at Tribeni, Hooghly,

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, hailed from

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 ...

. He assisted

Charles Wilkins Sir Charles Wilkins (1749 – 13 May 1836) was an English typographer and Orientalist, and founding member of The Asiatic Society. He is notable as the first translator of '' Bhagavad Gita'' into English, He supervised Panchanan Karmakar to ...

in creating the first the Bangla type. His wooden Bengali alphabet and typeface had been used until

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE ( bn, ঈশ্বর চন্দ্র বিদ্যাসাগর; 26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), born Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay, was an Indian educator and social reformer of the nineteenth century. ...

proposed a simplified version. Apart from Bangla, Karmakar developed type in 14 languages, including Arabic, Persian, Marathi, Telugu, Burmese and Chinese.

Early life and career

Karmakar was born in Tribeni. His ancestors were calligraphers; they inscribed names and decorations on copper plates, weapons, metal pots, etc. Andrews, a Christian missionary, had a printing press at Hughli. In order to print

Nathaniel Brassey Halhed Nathaniel Brassey Halhed (25 May 1751 – 18 February 1830) ( bn, হালেদ, "Haled") was an English Orientalist and philologist. Halhed was born at Westminster, and was educated at Harrow School, where he began a close friendship with R ...

's ''A Grammar of the Bengal Language'', he needed a Bangla type. Under the supervision of English typographer

, Karmakar created the first

typeface for printing. In 1779, Karmakar moved to Kolkata to work for Wilkins' new printing press. in chuchura, Hoggly. In 1801, he developed a typeface for British missionary William Carey's Bangla translation of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

. In 1803, Karmakar developed a set of Devnagari script, the first Nagari type to be developed in India.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karmakar, Panchanan 1804 deaths Indian typographers and type designers People from Hooghly district 20th-century Indian designers Bengali male artists 18th-century Indian inventors 19th-century Indian inventors 18th-century Indian artists 19th-century Indian artists Artists from West Bengal