Page 207 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

204 ART AND CRAFTS

mention again Pala manuscript painting and other manuscripts and books in
subsequent eras (fig. 4.1). These can be regarded as fine examples and even the
standard of book cover design and illustration in Bangladesh, before the arrival of the
print industry. However, with the introduction of the print industry, these local and
indigenous rules and methods of manuscripts, designs and map designs were
eventually lost. It is a fact that freedom is lost to a great extent in printing styles
dependent on technology. In book design, cover or illustration—more precisely the
measurement of paper, types of cover-printing and binding, shape and size, title page,
measurement of type-setting, arrangement of types, measurement of margins etc. and
many other details were learnt and borrowed from the Europeans. The history of the
printing industry in Bangladesh, that is book-cover and illustration, starts constrained
by the one-dimensional and unilateral criteria and boundary of technology.
The first Bengali book by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed (1751-1830), A Grammar of the
Bengali Language (fig. 4.11) was published from Hooghly in 1778. The printer was
Charles Wilkins (1749-1836), well versed in Sanskrit and an officer under the British
Raj. The credit for making the first type set of Bengali alphabet is given to Mr.
Wilkins. But he received assistance from Panchanan Karmakar.
The same Panchanan Karmakar and his son-in-law Manohar Karmakar (?-1846) later
prepared alphabets for Serampore Baptist Mission Press of William Carey (1761-
1834). But what was the cover of the first Bengali book like? As far as we know, the
title page was used as the cover. There was no need to make separate type set for the
cover. The amusing fact is that even though this book is given the credit of being the
first Bengali printed book, the title was in English.
fig. 4.11 The title page Graham Shaw has shown that in the 18th century there were 17 printing presses in
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of Halhed’s A Grammar Kolkata and at least 40 printers. However, most of them were Europeans. By 1799
of the Bengal Language they had published at least 368 books These were not only calendars, grammar books
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or government publications but also books of songs and pictures. In
this connection, we can mention the famous book by Balthazar
Solvyns (1760-1824) A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty
Colored Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs and
Dresses of Hindoos (1779), Daniells’ (uncle and nephew) Twelve
Views of Calcutta published from Kolkata. The local people also
worked in these printing presses owned by Europeans and achieved
excellence in making typeset and blocks. But a few more years
elapsed before the first illustrated Bengali book Oonoodah Mongul
by Bharatchandra was published from Ferris Company in Kolkata
in 1816 by Gangakishore Bhattacharya. 28 There were six
illustrations in this book and two had engravings saying, ‘Engraved
by Ramchand Ray’ (fig. 3.2). Though many believe that all these
are done by one artist, it is not certain. We do not know what the
cover of the first illustrated book was like.